Nathan Eastwood / Nicholas Middleton / Narbi Price / David Sullivan

31 May - 22 June
Preview: Friday 30 May

Nathan Eastwood, Sunday Cleaning

In view of the prevailing onslaught of neo-liberalist/capitalist tendencies in our current political climate and the daily media denigration of the working class, this timely exhibition, curated by Nathan Eastwood, focuses on renewing latent art historical concepts and exploring the conceptual and aesthetic paradigms inherent in Social Realism re-positioning it within a contemporary context.

Towards A New Socio-Painting questions how the material language of painting can respond to the idea of a socially committed art practice in a new way. Focusing on the present day each of the participating artists have contributed a series of paintings that in their various ways operate within an allegorical, political or social framework.

Narbi Price studied at Northumbria University 1999-2002 and Newcastle University 2008-10 (MFA).  Exhibitions include: Between fact and fiction Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne, 2014; Small is Beautiful XXXI – Who’s Afraid of Red Yellow and Blue? Flowers, Kingsland Road London, 2013; End of the Line, Paper Gallery, Manchester, 2013 and John Moores Painting Prize 2012, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
Nicholas Middleton studied at London Guildhall University 1993-94 and Winchester School of Art 1994-97.Exhibitions include: Provisional Cities, (solo exhibtion) The Crypt at St Marylebone, London, 2013; Cities All Dimensions, Tokarska Gallery, London, 2013; Francis Bacon to Paula Rego, Abbott Hall, Kendall; New East Anglian Painting, Ipswich Art School Gallery, Ipswich, 2012; John Moores 2010, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool.
David Sullivan studied painting at RCA in 2006-08 (MA) and at KIAD 2001–04 (BA HONS). Exhibitions include: Norfolk Contemporary Art 2014, The Forum, Norwich; ART/converters! Studio 1.1, London, 2014; This Year's Model, Studio 1.1, London, 2014; 400 Women, Sugar City, Amsterdam, 2012; Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London, 2010.
Nathan Eastwood is a London based artist and curator. He is the winner of the 2014 East London Painting Prize and has been selected for: Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London, 2013; John Moores Painting Prize, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, 2012; Celeste Art Prize, T2, Old Truman Brewery London & Lyon & Turnbull Galleries, Edinburgh, 2007.  

Panel Discussion: Towards A New Socio-Painting
Saturday 14 June 2014 - 2-3.30pm
Hosted by Nathan Eastwood and Alex Michon
Speakers: David Tucker / George Vasey / Paul O'Kane

This event will open out the political, social and artistic discourses surrounding this new socio-real aesthetic. Free Admission.
George Vasey (currently writer in residence at the Jerwood) is a writer/curator based in London. His writing has appeared in Art Review and Art Monthly. Recent curatorial projects include Alexis Hunter & Jo Spence at Richard Saltoun, London and A Small Hiccup, a traveling group exhibition exploring diseased language at Grand Union.
Alex Michon is an artist, writer and one of the directors of Transition Gallery. She has written for AN and Total Spec and regularly contributes articles to both Garageland and Arty magazines. She is currently collaborating with the Romany artist Delaine Le Bas on a writing project to accompany her show at Transition in summer 2014.
Paul O Kane (PhD) is a writer and artist based in London. He has published essays on art and culture in Art Monthly, Third Text, AN, Untitled, Contemporary, Third Text and Zing.
David Tucker (currently Visiting Research Fellow at Sussex University and Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Chester on the AHRC-funded project Staging Beckett) His publications include: An A-Z of Modernist Literature (2013), Samuel Beckett and Arnold Geulincx: Tracing a Literary Fantasia (2012) and British Social Realism in the Arts since 1940 (2011).