- Nathaniel Mellors
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Nathaniel Mellors (born 1974, Doncaster, England)[1] is a British artist and musician.[2]
Contents
Life and work
He studied at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, the University of Oxford and the Royal College of Art.[3]
Mellors makes installations "packed with ad-hoc sculpture, psychedelic theatre and absurdist, satirical film".[4] Mellors output includes installation, sculpture, film and video, music, performance, collage, painting, prints and critical writing.[5]
His work in the show Art Now: The Way in Which it Landed, curated by Ryan Gander at Tate Britain in 2008, was Thinking Rock Speaks, an empty speech bubble made of steel attached to a lump of alabaster.[6] Jonathan Griffin in Frieze magazine said that Mellors "gets the last laugh ... Sometimes there really is just nothing to say."[6]
In 2002 Mellors co-founded Junior Aspirin Records, a not-for-profit record label releasing music by artists in limited editions. Mellors plays bass in the art-rock group Skill 7 Stamina 12 with Dan Fox, Ashley Marlowe and Maaike Schoorel, and has also released music with Toilet, God in Hackney, Mysterius Horse and under his own name.[7]
In 2009 at the South London Gallery, he put on a one night stage version of his film, The Time Surgeon.[8] Jessica Lack in The Guardian described the variety of styles and genres in his films, "skimming off a wide range of artistic references from prog rock to hit TV series The Prisoner, with which he creates brilliantly offbeat installations".[8]
He was represented in the Tate Trienniel 2009, Altermodern, by a work Giantbum 2009, based on a story written by him about a party of medieval explorers who lose their way in the body of a giant.[1] The work used film and animatronic heads.[9] Adrian Searle in The Guardian said:
- There is a lot of bad acting and declaiming, a succession of dreadful puns, gags about a time-travelling Doctor Poo and Father Shit-mass, and some mock golden showers. Imagine the 120 Days of Sodom redone as panto.[9]
The work was also exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, and a variant of it at Centro Cultural Montehermoso in Vitoria-Gasteiz.[3]
In summer 2009, Mellors was commissioned by the BBC to make a short "work of modern art" to introduce the final episode of the cultural history series The Seven Ages of Britain, presented by David Dimbleby and directed by Jonty Claypole. The resultant work The Seven Ages of Britain Teaser featured Dimbleby voicing a silicon mask cast from his own face, alongside actors Gwendoline Christie (as 'The Operator') and Johnny Vivash (as 'Kadmus'). The work was broadcast on BBC One on the 21 March 2010 and can be viewed on the BBC Seven Ages of Britain website.[10]
Mellors is represented by Matt's Gallery, London; Galerie Diana Stigter, Amsterdam; and Monitor Video & Contemporary Art,[11] Rome.
He lives and works in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, London & Yorkshire, UK. [1]
In September 2011, Mellors selected a playlist of music that inspires him in his work. "Music was my way into art school. I was involved in music from my very early teens - tape collage and improvising with a microphone and an analogue delay pedal with friends. We had no technical ability at all. It was great! The experience of improvising with sound has been a handy touchstone ever since in terms of approaching art making.[12] His playlist includes Sonny Sharrock, GZA, Country Teasers and The Notorious BIG.Exhibitions
- Solo
- 2010 Ourhouse, De Hallen, Haarlem[3]
- 2009 Giantbum, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam[3]
- 2009 Giantbum, Monterhermoso, Vitoria, Spain[3]
- 2009 Giantbum, Lombard-Freid Projects, New York
- 2009 The Time Surgeon, South London Gallery[8]
- 2006 Hateball, Alison Jacques, London
- 2005 Hateball, The Collective, Edinburgh
- 2004 Profondo Viola, Matt's Gallery, London
- 2001 Black Gold, Matt's Gallery, London
- Group
- 2008 Art Now, Tate Britain, London[6]
- Deep Screen, Stedelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam
- 2009 Contour 2009, Mechelen, Belgium
- 2009 Altermodern, Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London[1]
Music projects
- 1989 The New Sharp (with Simon Johns)
- 1990 - 1991 Autobutcher (with Simon Johns, Chris Barter, Ashley Marlowe and Grant Newman)
- 1991 - 1993 Corridor (with Chris Barter, Ashley Marlowe and Grant Newman)
- 1992 - 1999 Conemelt (with Ashley Marlowe and Grant Newman)
- 2002 Prince Lightning
- 2002 - present Junior Aspirin Records
- 2002 - 2007 Skill 7 Stamina 12 (with Dan Fox, Ashley Marlowe and Maaike Schoorel)
- 2003 - present God in Hackney (with Andy Cooke)
- 2006 Mysterius Horse (with Dan Fox)
- 2008 - present Advanced Sportswear (with Dan Fox and Ashley Marlowe)
Collections
References
- ^ a b c d Altermodern Tate Triennial. Explore: Participants, Tate. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
- ^ O'Reilly, Sally. "Nathaniel Mellors: Monograph", Frieze, February 2005. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
- ^ a b c d e f "Nathaniel Mellors—Ourhouse", De Hallen. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
- ^ Dan Fox, Statement for Lyon Biennial, Lyon Biennial 2007, eds Stephanie Moisdon & Hans Ulrich Obrist, JRP-Ringier 2007.
- ^ Nathaniel Mellors, 'Country Teasers - The Empire Strikes Back', frieze magazine, 2006
- ^ a b c Griffin, Jonathan. "The way in which it landed", Frieze, 1 August 2008. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
- ^ The track 'Moondoghuis' pressed on a 1-sided 7" single and included in the publication 'Profondo Viola', Matt's Gallery, London, 2004.
- ^ a b c Lack, Jessica. "Exhibition preview: Nathaniel Mellors/Superflex, London", The Guardian, 3 January 2009. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
- ^ a b Searle, Adrian. "Altermodern review: 'The richest and most generous Tate Triennial yet' ", The Guardian, 3 February 2009. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
- ^ "David Dimbleby Becomes a Work of Art", BBC website [1]
- ^ Monitoronline.org
- ^ "Nathaniel Mellors chooses music that inspires him in his work"Phaidon.com, September 2011.
- ^ "Nathaniel Mellors", Tate. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
External links
- Matt's Gallery: Nathaniel Mellors
- Frieze Issue 112, jan-feb 2008, Biennials, Surveys & Retrospectives
- Junior Aspirin
Categories:- 1974 births
- Living people
- English artists
- Conceptual artists
- Installation artists
- Contemporary artists
- English musicians
- People from Doncaster
- Alumni of the University of Oxford
- Alumni of the Royal College of Art
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