Nathaniel Mellors

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Nathaniel Mellors (born December 1974, Doncaster, Yorkshire, England) [1] is an English contemporary artist and musician. [2]

Contents

Education

He studied at the University of Oxford's Ruskin Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, the Royal College of Art [3] and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Amsterdam.

Career

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]

He has exhibited in numerous group shows, including: 2012 "Radical Languages", Cricoteka, Kraków, [6] 2011 ILLUMInations, 54th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, [7] 2011 "Un'Expressione Geografica", Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, [8] 2010 British Art Show 7 – In The Days of The Comet, Hayward Gallery, London & UK touring, 2009 Altermodern , Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London, [1] 2009 Contour 2009, Mechelen, Belgium, 2008 Art Now, Tate Britain, London [9] , and Deep Screen, Stedelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam.

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. [9] Jonathan Griffin in Frieze magazine said that Mellors "gets the last laugh ... Sometimes there really is just nothing to say." [9]

Mellors is represented by The Box, Los Angeles, [10] Los Angeles, Monitor Video & Contemporary Art, [11] Rome, Stigter van Doesburg, Amsterdam & Matt's Gallery, London.

He teaches in the School of Art, Architecture & Design at Leeds Beckett University and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. He lives and works in Los Angeles, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, London & Yorkshire, UK.

Projects

In 2009 at the South London Gallery, he put on a one night stage version of his film, The Time Surgeon. [12] 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". [12]

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. [13] 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. [13] "

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 21 March 2010. [14]

In 2011, Ourhouse, Mellors' first major solo exhibition in a UK public institution, was presented at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. [15] The exhibition included a three-part video installation alongside animatronic sculptures featuring characters from the films.

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. [16] His playlist includes Sonny Sharrock, GZA, Country Teasers and The Notorious B.I.G.

Mellors was nominated for the Jarman Award in 2012 [17] and was the recipient of the Cobra Art Prize in 2011 [18] and the Contemporary Art Society annual award in 2014. Presented by Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed, the £40,000 award goes towards creating a film forming the centrepiece of a 15 month exhibition on the themes of Samuel Beckett and The Theatre of the Absurd. [19]

In 2013, Mellors completed a residency with the Hammer Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, culminating in a 35mm short film titled The Sophisticated Neanderthal Interview. [20] The film toured to Dublin's Temple Bar Gallery in 2014. [21]

Personal life

In 2015, Mellors married Tala Madani, an Iranian-American artist, in Los Angeles. They have two children. [22]

Solo exhibitions

Music projects

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. [38]

Collections

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References

  1. 1 2 3 Altermodern Tate Triennial. Explore: Participants, Tate. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  2. ↑ O'Reilly, Sally. "Nathaniel Mellors: Monograph", Frieze , February 2005. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Nathaniel Mellors—Ourhouse", De Hallen. Retrieved 7 November 2010.
  4. ↑ Dan Fox, Statement for Lyon Biennial, Lyon Biennial, 2007, eds Stephanie Moisdon & Hans Ulrich Obrist, JRP-Ringier 2007.
  5. ↑ Nathaniel Mellors, 'Country Teasers – The Empire Strikes Back', frieze magazine, 2006
  6. ↑ "Radical Languages | Cricoteka". News.cricoteka.pl. 6 April 2015. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  7. ↑ "La Biennale di Venezia - Artists". 8 June 2012. Archived from the original on 8 June 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  8. ↑ "Frieze Magazine | Archive | Archive | Un'Espressione Geografica". 4 October 2011. Archived from the original on 4 October 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  9. 1 2 3 Griffin, Jonathan. "The way in which it landed", Frieze , 1 August 2008. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  10. ↑ "The Box". theboxla.com. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  11. ↑ "Monitor". Monitoronline.org. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  12. 1 2 3 Lack, Jessica. "Exhibition preview: Nathaniel Mellors/Superflex, London", The Guardian , 3 January 2009. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  13. 1 2 Searle, Adrian. "Altermodern review: 'The richest and most generous Tate Triennial yet' ", The Guardian , 3 February 2009. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  14. ↑ "BBC One - Seven Ages of Britain, Age of Ambition, David Dimbleby becomes a work of art". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  15. ↑ "Nathaniel Mellors: Ourhouse | Institute of Contemporary Arts". Ica.org.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  16. ↑ "Nathaniel Mellors chooses music that inspires him in his work"Phaidon.com, September 2011.
  17. ↑ "Film London". Flamin.filmlobdon.org.uk. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  18. ↑ "Frieze Magazine | Shows | Nathaniel Mellors". 22 January 2012. Archived from the original on 22 January 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  19. ↑ "Nathaniel Mellors Wins the £40,000 Contemporary Art Society Annual Award 2014". Contemporary Art Society. 25 November 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  20. ↑ "Nathaniel Mellors | The Sophisticated Neanderthal Interview (2013) | Artsy". 3 February 2015. Archived from the original on 3 February 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  21. 1 2 "The Sophisticated Neanderthal Interview | Nathaniel Mellors :: Temple Bar Gallery + Studios :: Dublin Ireland". Templebargallery.com. 1 November 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  22. ↑ Tomkins, Calvin (16 January 2023). "The Raucous Assault of Tala Madani's Art" . The New Yorker. Vol. 98, no. 46. pp. 42–49. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  23. ↑ "New Museum". newmuseum.org. 6 January 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  24. ↑ "The Aalto Natives". frame-finland.fi. 6 January 2018. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
  25. ↑ "The BOX Gallery". Theboxla.com. 16 April 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  26. ↑ "New_Cave_Art_Now". Stigter van Doesburg. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  27. ↑ "Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej Zamek Ujazdowski". Csw.art.pl. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  28. ↑ "Nathaniel Mellors "The Sophisticated Neanderthal" at Galerie Art:Concept, Paris - Mousse MagazineMousse Magazine". Moussemagazine.it. 15 March 2014. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  29. ↑ "Hammer Projects: Nathaniel Mellors - Hammer Museum". Hammer.ucla.edu. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  30. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). www.artbma.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 December 2013. Retrieved 17 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  31. ↑ "Nathaniel Mellors - Monitor". Monitoronline.org. 26 January 2013. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  32. ↑ "Malmö Konsthall". Konsthall.malmo.se. 16 December 2012. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  33. ↑ "La Salle de bains – Just another WordPress site". Lasalledebains.net. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  34. ↑ "Matt's Gallery". Mattsgallery.org. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  35. ↑ "SMART Project Space". SMART Project Space. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  36. ↑ "Institute of Contemporary Arts : Exhibitions : Nathaniel Mellors: Ourhouse". 12 June 2011. Archived from the original on 12 June 2011. Retrieved 6 March 2018.
  37. ↑ "Nathaniel Mellors—Giantbum", Stedelijk Museum. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
  38. ↑ The track 'Moondoghuis' pressed on a 1-sided 7" single and included in the publication 'Profondo Viola', Matt's Gallery, London, 2004.
  39. ↑ "Nathaniel Mellors", Tate. Retrieved 19 February 2010.
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