February 28th – April 4th, 2015
Opening Night, February 28th, 6 – 8pm.
Oil, enamel spraypaint and acrylic on Birchwood ply, 80 x 100cm, £1,500
Oil, enamel spraypaint and acrylic on Birchwood ply, 80 x 100cm, £1,500
Oil, enamel spraypaint and acrylic on Birchwood ply, 80 x 100cm, £1,500
Oil on birchwood ply primed with concrete, 60 x 80cm, £850
Oil on birchwood ply primed with concrete, 60 x 80cm, £850
Oil, enamel spraypaint and acrylic on Birchwood ply, 50 x 45cm, £650
Oil and acrylic on canvas, 85 x 90cm, £1,050
Limited Edition Print, Unframed, £49, Framed £69
Limited Edition Print, Unframed, £49, Framed £69
Limited Edition Print, Unframed, £49, Framed £69
Limited Edition Print, Unframed, £49, Framed £69
Limited Edition Print, Unframed, £49, Framed £69
Limited Edition Print, Unframed, £49, Framed £69
Limited Edition Print, Unframed, £49, Framed £69
Limited Edition Print, Unframed, £49, Framed £69
Limited Edition Print, Unframed, £49, Framed £69
Exhibition information
From 28th February 2015, Tarpey Gallery in Castle Donnington, Derbyshire will be showing the new exhibition by international British artist Nick Hersey. Entitled ‘Specialists in Failure’, the collection of paintings explores the current grand narrative of a market-driven neoliberal economy rampaging across our world. Using a variety of reference sources such as second hand photographs procured from eBay and vintage encyclopaedias.
Nicks images exploit the inherent narrative of his reference materials to play with the complex themes associated with our current economic and socio-political situation- in one piece an overweight communist block era woman gleefully exercises amid a nondescript textured abstract ground. In another, two sloppily rendered stags lock horns in a composition shared with a vaguely titillating 1950’s glamour girl torn from some period advert of unknown origin and with ambiguous purpose.
Drawing on urban techniques that influenced his childhood – Cooper/Chalfant’s Subway Art cited as one of the biggest creative influences of his style – Nicks paintings veer from classical figurative rendition to sloppily applied concrete backgrounds and the odd application of Montans spraypaint.
Nick Hersey had travelled widely over the last 15 years before settling in Derbyshire. Following time spent living in Sao Paulo, Thailand and Shanghai, Nick chose Derbyshire to settle with his family, despite hailing from Kent originally. His travels have influenced his practice, as he draws on a variety of sources and themes to inspire his graphic style- (a result of his training as an Illustrator under Brian Love at Kingston University. In the 1990’s)- Brazilian graffiti, contemporary Chinese scuptors such as Han Lei and Chen Wei, and hand drawn signage culled from road trips in rural Thailand and Brazil.
Exhibition Statement
Since the emergence of Western christian philosophy, our ethics, norms and values have, on the whole, been dominated by the idea that man is inherently flawed and must seek some kind of salvation. Today our Western society and it’s overarching narrative is that of the free market and its essential role in allowing us as individuals to shape and develop our lives by our own efforts and exclusively within the parameters of a consumer society. We are sold the dream, and reassured daily just how far from that ideal our humble efforts are.
The works developed in this exhibition are responses to the call of the neo-liberal meritocratic society that Paul Verhaeghe rallies against in his book ‘What About Me’. It records in small fragments expressions of this new market driven society, and the wider geopolitical context, one which Dominique Moisi refers to as a ‘culture of fear, hope and himiliation that is reshaping the world’.
Whether it is the systemic failure of large financial institutions, or the failures of individuals in politics and economics, our lives are being shaped and our opinions bent to the tune of a new reality in which not only is our society failing, but we as individuals are broken and in need of the tonic that western consumer society can offer.