Nothing Gold Can Stay
Assembly 2025
The New Art Gallery Walsall is pleased to present Nothing Gold Can Stay, a group exhibition of new work made during the second iteration of Assembly, a development programme for local artists held in partnership with arts organisation Multistory.
Initiated as part of Multistory’s artist development programme, Blast Creative Network (BCN), Assembly supports and platforms emerging artists in Sandwell and the Black Country through mentoring and a yearly exhibition.
This year we have supported Mia Banks, Mandeep Dillon and Tegen Kimbley, whose practices span photography, moving image, sculpture and installation.
Artist biographies
Mia Banks is a multidisciplinary artist from Walsall, specialising primarily in sculpture with elements of photography. Her practice focuses on validating undervalued materials and textures found in everyday life. She combines mass-manufacturing and handcrafting techniques to extract and replicate existing textures from familiar settings onto various objects and surfaces. Through this process of extraction, she aims to encourage audiences to pay closer attention to their surroundings by offering a neurodiverse perspective—transforming overlooked everyday surfaces and materials into art. She previously won the Bowater Prize For Excellence (2024) and the Gertrude Emily Griffin Prize (2023).
Mandeep Dillon creates ephemeral sculptures that investigate the transient nature of human and non-human existence. Conflicted about occupying space and adding to a crowded world, temporality is an integral aspect of her practice. Made primarily from inflatables, her works are inherently fragile, their swollen buoyancy hinting at impending collapse. Often, photographs serve as the only lasting evidence of their existence. Viewers might engage with the sculpture in a way that is both abstract and visceral, their presence prompting kinetic reactions and an awareness of their embodied connection to the object. Based in Dudley, Mandeep has an MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art and is a member of the Royal Society of Sculptors. She won the Madame Tussauds Fine Art Prize for her MA show and was shortlisted for the Ingram Prize.
Tegen Kimbley is a documentary photographer. She graduated from The University of South Wales in 2018. Recent group exhibitions include Narcissus in Bloom, Ffoto Cymru 2024, Cardiff (2024), CYCLES, The Gap, Birmingham (2024), The Technician Show, Coventry (2022), Offsite 9: Wolverhampton Outdoor Market (2022), and PHRAME: Everywoman, Senedd Cymru -Welsh Parliament (2020). Exploring manmade environments Tegen documents the people and objects that inhabit them, creating narratives around the everyday and over-looked. Through considered composition, she attempts to generate dialogue around current environmental, social and economic issues, whilst creating a sense of atmosphere and place.
Preview
Thursday 17 July, 6-8pm
Free, all welcome
