Mark Bleakley, Toby Christian, Rose O’Gallivan, Milly Thompson
Curated by Nadia Hebson, Paul Becker and George Vasey
The exhibition advocates for the primacy of the artwork seeking affinities that reveal as much as they conceal. If a public gallery’s stated aim is to engage visitors by shifting confusion to curiosity, this exhibition asks how do we work with both — how can we productively confound the spectator with deeper layers of fiction, speculation and analysis, serving simultaneously as explication and obfuscation. Rather than an essayistic or thematic approach, we will try to foreground the conversational tone of the collaboration. The exhibition layers alternative strategies and approaches, forming a type of vocal, textual and visual polyphony.
Mark Bleakley is an artist and performer based in Edinburgh. He works across visual arts and dance contexts. His work focuses on the body as a site for analysis and reflection, which frequently manifests as live performance and video. Mark has recently exhibited and performed at The Varieties, Harris Museum (Preston), The Northern Charter (Newcastle), Ludlow67 (New York), Dance Base Fringe programme 2016, Collective Gallery (Edinburgh) and was part of Radiocity at Tate Britain and Resonance FM.
Toby Christian lives and works in Glasgow and makes paintings, sculpture, installations performances and intricately detailed texts. Recent solo exhibitions and performances include Railing, at Raising Dust, Whitechapel Gallery (2017), Pedestrian Confetti, Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun, Leeds (2015) and A Bunch of Keys, Nam Project, Milan (2015). His forthcoming solo exhibition The News, curated by David Dale Gallery, Glasgow, opens in October at Swimming Pool, Sofia. Recent group exhibitions include Quiz 2, Musée d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg (2016), Renderuin, Glasgow International (2016) and Mais é Menos, Baró Galeria, São Paulo (2016). His books, Collar (2017) and Measures (2013) are published by Koenig Books, London.
Milly Thompson uses a variety of different media including wall-sculpture/painting, print, text, digital and performance to imagine the correlation between commodity and pleasure, the rational and the irrational, hyperbole and tropes of truth or meaning. Juggling these concepts through various forms, both found or not, enables her to build a set of visual manifestations for living and understanding. Milly was in artists' collective BANK from 1994 to 2003, and created work for solo and group exhibitions at galleries including Tate Modern, ICA and Whitechapel Gallery. Her individual work has been featured in exhibitions, residencies and commissions at galleries including Peer UK, Focal Point Gallery and South London Gallery. Recent solo and group exhibitions include Finding inspiration in the shape of a palm tree, UK and Caribbean with Blue Curry (venues tbc, 2018/19); Akerman Daly, ‘Artist in Residence’, 2017, Merchandise and Accessories, solo show, Naming Rights, London (2017); DIK PIKS, Lady Beck, Mabgate, Leeds (2017); Cougar, solo show, Westminster Waste, London (2016); I Choose Painting, akermandaly.com; The Peculiar People, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on- Sea (2016); THE GEO POLITICS OF MONETIZED AIRSPACE Come Fly with Me, I Meet You by the Airside Gucci Concession at 4, Fox Fur Hat (Sarah Staton’s Super Store), Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis (2016); Graphics Interchange Format: 25 Years of Focal Point Gallery, Focalpoint Gallery, Southend-on-Sea (2015); BANK: Fax-Back, 1990’s room, Tate, London (2014)
Rose O’Gallivan is an artist and writer living in London. Solo show’s include No norms and healing Ingrid, London and Mrs Soprano Furini, Rome. Recent group shows include Tender Blue Gerald Moore Gallery, Seasons Maxilla space, and We do not speak but confine ourselves briefly to the surface (a dramaturgy of interiority) ICA, all London. In 2016 she was in residence at Hospitalfield Arts, Arbroath and recent readings of her texts include Under Lament (Jean and the others) as part of I have no mouth but I must scream Cell Projects, Waves Rosa Waves Patricia as part of Dedications Art Review Bar and Figures our speakers Ingrid, all London.
