The Problem with People
THE PROBLEM WITH PEOPLE
The Problem with People is an exhibition of 18 painters, focusing on different ways that artists deal with the figure in painting today. The somewhat provocative title refers to the difficulties and challenges often associated with the figure in painting, both in a literal or representational sense, but also in philosophical, ethical and material terms.
The idea of (the) painting – which is not a ‘person’ – performs as a kind of surrogate or stand in for the body. This enables artists to see and re-see themselves through painting, be it through locating the figure inside pictorial space, emphasising the figure beyond the stretcher, notions of the figure with or without a body, the figure as gesture, a shape, a place, an outline, an anthropomorphic object, or through material itself.
Exhibiting artists:
Reece Adair @reeces.peeces__
Keith Ashcroft @keithashcroft
David Ballantyne @cobwebeyes
Andrew Bracey @darthbracey
Kate Dunn @bellissi.mama
Simon Foxall @simon_foxall
David Gledhill @davidgledhillartist
Gareth Griffith @griffith.gareth
Mary Lou Lawless-Gill @maryloulawlessgill
Andrea Medjesi-Jones @andrea.medjesijones
Dougal McKenzie @imagehalflife
Paula Newton @paulanewton9
Alex Roberts @alexroberts975
Wayne Robinson #waynerobinson
Luke Skiffington @luke_skiffington
Geraldine Swayne @geraldineswayne
Michael Stubbs @stubbs3198
Mikey Thomas @mikey_c_thomas
Curated by @keithashcroft
Oceans Apart
24-26 King St
Salford
M3 7DG
#theproblemwithpeople
Parties Talk
This talk took place at the closing event for ‘Parties’, my exhibition at Rogue Project Space in 2025.
John Moores Painting Prize 2025
I’m delighted to have been selected for the John Moores Painting Prize 2025. The exhibition opens in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool on Saturday September 6th and continues until Sunday March 1st 2026.
Parties extended opening times and closing event
For the last week of the exhibition, July 21-25, Parties will be open each day from Monday to Friday between midday and 5pm.
Closing event Saturday July 26 from 2-5pm.
Artist’s Talk 3pm
Otto’s Big Couch Challenge 4pm
Parties
An exhibition by David Gledhill
June 14 – July 27 2025
Project Space
Rogue Artists’ Studios CIC
4 Barrass Street
Higher Openshaw
Manchester
M11 1PU
Private View Saturday June 14, 2-5pm
Closing event Saturday July 26, 2-5pm
Exhibition open Fridays and Saturdays 12-5pm and at other times by appointment.
According to the aphorism, ‘a picture paints a thousand words’*. However, one word with contemporary resonance has multiple meanings and suggests unlimited visual manifestations. At a time when words and their usage are more fiercely debated than ever, this project explores some of the visual dimensions of one of the most compendious and controversial terms of all. From family celebrations to political associations, Parties evokes a range of phenomena that may have purely recreational, or alternatively, world changing significance.
Parties brings the domestic shindig, Christmas, wedding, fancy dress and work bashes together with political visual culture to explore the extraordinary range of images that language can evoke. Combining paintings based on amateur photographic source material with artefacts and objects drawn from the artist’s own collection of vintage propaganda material, Parties takes a historical perspective on the power of the word to shape our lives.
*Attributed to Frederick R. Barnard. First appeared in Printer’s Ink in December 1921.
Happy Holidays!
Ventriloquism Exhibition Panel Discussion
Saturday November 2nd 2024
11am – 4pm
I’m delighted to be taking part in a panel discussion in association with the exhibition Ventriloquism: The Lost Voice Spoken by Others at The Whitaker, Rawtenstall on Saturday November 2nd.
In this exclusive day-long session, you’ll be guided round our current exhibition by artist-curator Mike Chavez Dawson and several of the exhibiting artists, enjoy a hot buffet lunch and panel discussion with questions before finishing the day with complimentary refreshments and networking.
The panel will explore the ideas from ‘Ventriloquism’ drawing upon the wide and varied works focusing on topical key thematic including forgotten histories, misinformation, gaslighting, activism and artificial intelligence.
Chaired by Dave Beech artist & arts writer (Art Monthly), the esteemed panel will also include artist curator Mike Chavez-Dawson, David Gledhill (artist & director of Rogue), Hilary Jack (artist, co-founder, previous Director of Paradise Works), and Anneké Pettican (Brass Art).
Rogue Open Studios 2024
Rogue Artists’ Studios & Project Space CIC
4 Barrass Street
M11 1PU
Open Studios
12-5pm
Saturday October 5 & Sunday October 6, 2024
Opening Party 2-5pm
Saturday October 5
The ‘Rogue Open Studios’ is an opportunity to visit the workspaces of more than 85 leading contemporary artists. Rogue artists work across media including drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture, collage, glass, textiles, film, photography, sound art, performance and assemblage, and will be on hand over the weekend to welcome visitors to our magnificent Grade 2 listed buildings.
Free entry and parking.
Coffee stall
Wheelchair accessible (ground floor only).
For more information visit: www.rastudios.co.uk
Or contact: rogueartistsstudios@yahoo.co.uk
Ventriloquism:The Lost Voice Spoken by Others
EXHIBITION:
VENTRILOQUISM: The Lost Voice Spoken by Others . . .
Curated by Artist Curator, Mike Chavez-Dawson
Preview / Opening: 24 Aug 2024, 12:00 – 16:00
On Until: 10 Nov 2024
The Whitaker Art Gallery & Museum,
Rawtenstall,
Rossendale,
BB4 6RE,
United Kingdom
This group show will explore the idea of ‘Ventriloquism’ both directly and indirectly, drawing upon topical thematics including data harvesting, hyperreality, forgotten histories, misinformation, gaslighting, mediation, and artificial intelligence.
The artists selected traverse a breadth of media and methods, from the traditional; painting, drawing, print and sculpture, to lens-based, digital, contemporary performance and conceptual practices.
They also span demographics from recent graduate, mid-career to established international practitioners.
The works, artists and artwork seek to resonate and draw out critical, playful, and insightful narratives with the collection at the Whitaker, both with the physicality of the Museum layout, on display and through archived collections.
It aims to raise an informed debate around how information is both mediated to us by both the marketing & political forces via algorithms and how these act or speak on our behalf.
Featuring over twenty five artists including several collaborations with Mike Chavez-Dawson such as AI, Rebecca Davy, Brian Reed, Dave Beech, Axel Bottenberg, Louise Adkins, Adkins Purcell (Collaborative practice of Louise Adkins & Jonathan Purcell), Chris Alton, Julie Cassels, Jane Chavez-Dawson, Hilary Jack, Chris Leach, Nye Thompson, Brass Art (Collaborative practice of Chara Lewis, Kristin Mojsiewicz & Anneké Pettican), Jeffrey Knopf, Karen Densham, Alan Baker, Pat Flynn, David Alker, Peter Liddell, David Gledhill, Jake & Dinos Chapman (from TCDFC*), Sarah Hardacre, Richard Shields, Kieran Leach, Liam Scully, Paul Vivian, and Evita Ziemele.
The exhibition has been kindly supported by:
Rogue Artists’ Studios, Selfish, and Neal’s Yard Health Remedies
*The Chavez-Dawson Family Collection
David Gledhill Painting History 