PIVOT: Editions at Castlefield Gallery

Maja Lorkowska, Exhibitions Editor
Pat Flynn

PIVOT: Editions at Castlefield Gallery, Castlefield 27 May — 4 September 2022 Entrance is free — Visit now

Calling all budding and seasoned art collectors! Castlefield Gallery is offering affordable editioned work by five artists based across the North West through the brand new display PIVOT: Editions.

Showcasing the work of Pat Flynn, Garth Gratrix, Bridget O’Gorman, Salma Noor and Chester Tenneson in the upper gallery, the PIVOT programme is delivered by Castlefield Gallery and Liverpool’s Bluecoat gallery. The scheme includes bespoke mentoring and skills development for mid-career artists. The artists’ work ranges from digitally hyper-realistic images and exploration of queerness, to pieces that interrogate the structures of power and the strangeness of everyday objects and language. Let’s take a closer look at the exhibiting artists’ work on offer.

Chester Tenneson’s work is filled with humour – through word play with a pinch of the absurd, the artist interrogates his own identity as a transgender man, and the world around us for idiosyncrasies and the agreed norms of language. Tenneson himself describes his process as an act of free creative play that is also a form of resistance in a cisnormative reality.

'PIVOT: Editions' at Castlefield Gallery, installation view
‘PIVOT: Editions’ at Castlefield Gallery

 

Salma Noor’s oeuvre consists of spliced historical imagery often made into GIFs and other digital outputs, resulting in immersive installations and animated collage. The artist is the co-founder of DAAD Futurism with Amrita Dhallu and Helen Starr, and was a member of and a in-house designer for Radical Womxn’s DANCE Party – Liverpool-based collective which organised events to bring awareness to the struggles of womxn in anti-capitalist movements. Noor’s work has a distinctly ‘online’ aesthetic, with glitches and text being a key element, even when the end result appears in a physical format.

Pat Flynn’s practice centres on all that which is mass produced. Hollywood films, consumer goods, computer games and advertising form the basis of Flynn’s interests, resulting in realistic, digitally rendered ‘goods’.

Queerness is the focal point of Garth Gratrix’s work, who often produces installations, videos and utilises textiles for his multifaceted pieces. Not unlike Tenneson, Gratrix’s signature minimalism interrogates the everyday in order to explore how ‘queer’ is embedded within construction materials such as wood, concrete, metal, and paint.

Laslty, Bridget O’Gorman’s work uses text, live events, film and sculpture. While the artist is currently researching the subject of disabled experience in relation to gender and access, her work focuses on bodies and the material experience.

The PIVOT selection is bold, varied, and certainly worth a visit whether you’re looking for new original art to own, or keeping up to date with the preoccupations of contemporary artists today.

PIVOT: Editions at Castlefield Gallery, Castlefield 27 May — 4 September 2022 Entrance is free Visit now

What's on at Castlefield Gallery

Where to go near PIVOT: Editions at Castlefield Gallery

Deansgate
Music venue
Rebellion

Live music and 4am club night venue Rebellion provides a rock heavy alternative with smatterings of bass, across from Deansgate Locks.

Castlefield
Restaurant
The Deansgate Tavern

The Deansgate is located in the heart of Manchester. A traditional pub with homemade food and real ales, this is truly one of the greatest watering holes in Manchester.

Deansgate
Bar or Pub
Cloud 23

Manchester’s Cloud 23, the cocktail bar siting proud on the 23rd floor of the Beetham Tower, boasts unparalleled views across the city.

Castlefield
Bar or Pub
Atlas Bar

Situated in the railway arches of Deansgate, Atlas is an elegant, quality bar specialising in nearly 600 gins from around the world.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
The Briton’s Protection

Standing on the corner of a junction opposite The Bridgewater Hall, The Briton’s Protection is Manchester’s oldest pub. It has occupied the same spot since 1795, going under the equally patriotic name The Ancient Britain.

Manchester
Restaurant
Indian Tiffin Room, Manchester

Indian Tiffin Room is a restaurant specialising in Indian street food, with branches in Cheadle and Manchester. This is the information for the Manchester venue.

The Life Centre North
City Centre
Event venue
The Life Centre North

The Life Centre, just off Deansgate in Manchester, is a place which offers yoga and Pilates classes for people of all abilities. 

What's on: Exhibitions

Culture Guides

Teenage Dads
Music in Manchester and the North

Fresh concert seasons, forward-thinking festivals and a revolving door of amazing gigs. Things are looking bright as spring comes into view.