Mat Collishaw, (Wall) Insecticide series, 2006-2011; (Case) The Venal Muse, 2012.
Photo: Jonathan Shaw.Mat Collishaw
The New Art Gallery Walsall is delighted to present a major survey exhibition by British artist Mat Collishaw, the first in a UK public gallery for over ten years. The exhibition includes photography, film, sculpture and installation and testifies to the richness and breadth of Collishaw’s practice, highlighting and exploring some of the overriding themes and preoccupations within his work.
Mat Collishaw is fascinated by the darker side of human nature. He has never shied away from difficult or challenging subject matter; ideas that deal with death, destruction and decay are revealed as beautiful, hypnotic and compelling. In Collishaw’s world, seduction meets repulsion, the shocking becomes alluring, the beautiful becomes squalid and desire meets pain. As an artist, he is especially aware of the power of the image to manipulate and he draws his inspiration from a range of sources such as the media, popular culture, nature, mythology, the slick vernacular of advertising, the rich seams of art history and the proliferation of images available through the internet.
Mat Collishaw
Third Degree , 2015
£195 + VAT (unframed).
The New Art Gallery Walsall and The Library of Birmingham jointly commissioned a limited edition print to celebrate and raise income for both projects. The print can be purchased from The New Art Gallery Walsall shop – please see the Gallery Shop page for more information
Saturday 28 November, 2pm
Join Deborah Robinson, Head of Exhibitions for an informal tour of the exhibition.
Free, just drop in!
In Camera
18 September 2015 – 10 January 2016
Concurrent with his exhibition in Walsall, Collishaw presents In Camera in the Gallery at the Library of Birmingham. Commissioned by the Library and GRAIN with support from Arts Council England this new body of work was made in response to an archive of orphaned police crime scene images Collishaw discovered in the Library of Birmingham’s photography collection.
