Artists

Nathan Coley

Introduction

Nathan Coley (born 1967, Glasgow) is interested in the idea of ‘public’ space, and his practice explores the ways in which architecture becomes invested – and reinvested – with meaning. Across a range of media Coley investigates what the built environment reveals about the people it surrounds and how the social and individual response to it is in turn culturally conditioned. Using the readymade as a means to take from and re-place in the world, Coley addresses the ritual forms we use to articulate our beliefs – from hand-held placards and erected signs to religious sanctuaries. Whether highlighting in illuminated letters the testimony of a New Yorker recalling the World Trade Center attacks or erasing the names of the dead from their gravestones, his work frequently turns the specific into the general, thereby testing its function as a form of social representation.

Biography

Nathan Coley lives and works in Glasgow and was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2007. Recent and important solo exhibitions include Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2017), Parafin, London (2019 and 2017), New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury (2016), House Festival, Brighton (2015), Pier Arts Centre, Orkney (2013), Kunstverein Freiburg (2013), Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2012), ACCA, Melbourne (2011), Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh (2004), Centro Cultural de Belem, Lisbon (2001) and the Westfalischer Kunstverein, Munster (2000).

Notable group exhibitions include ‘Stories for an Uncertain World’, Edinburgh Art Festival (2019), ‘Possibilities For a Non-Alienated Life’, Kochi Muziris Biennale (2018), Arhus2017 – European Capital of Culture (2017), ‘Actions - The Image of the World can be Different’, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge (2018), ‘Age of Terror - Art since 9/11’, Imperial War Museum, London (2018), ‘Glow’, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2016), ‘Daydreaming With Stanley Kubrick’, Somerset House, London (2016), Bruges Triennial (2015), ‘Generation: 25 Years of Contemporary Art in Scotland’ (2014), ‘You Imagine What You Desire’, 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014), ‘Mom, Am I Barbarian’, 13th Istanbul Biennial (2013), ‘Tales of Time and Space’, Folkestone Triennial, UK (2008), ‘Days Like These’, Tate Triennial of Contemporary British Art, Tate Britain (2003), and in the ‘British Art Show 6’, BALTIC (2005).

Nathan Coley’s works are included in many public and private collections worldwide.

Exhibitions

Nathan Coley
The Future is Inside Us, It's Not Somewhere Else

Parafin
27 September – 16 November 2019

Nathan Coley

Parafin
10 February – 18 March 2017

Selected Works

Nathan Coley
And We Are Everywhere, 2018
Temporary sculpture, Brunnshög, Near Lund, Sweden
3.5 × 15 × 7 m

Nathan Coley
You Imagine What You Desire, 2014
Illuminated text on scaffolding
Installation, 19th Biennale of Sydney

Nathan Coley
You Create What You Will, 2014
Illuminated text on scaffolding
Installation, 19th Biennale of Sydney

Nathan Coley
You Will What You Imagine, 2014
Illuminated text on scaffolding
Installation, 19th Biennale of Sydney

Nathan Coley
The Honours Series, 2013
Gold Leaf on Giclée prints
70 × 50 cm each

Nathan Coley
A Place Beyond Belief, 2012
Illuminated text on scaffolding
Installation, National Gallery of Kosovo, Pristina

Nathan Coley
Bandstand, 2012
Poured concrete and apple tree
3 × 15.5 × 7.9 m
Platz des Wettbewerbs, Rieselfeld, Germany

Nathan Coley
Tattooed Church, 2011
Painted plywood1
30 × 45 × 146 m

Nathan Coley
In Memory, 2010
Poured concrete, grass, gravel, dead tree, recycled headstones
2.5 × 7.5 × 7.5 m
Jupiter Artland, Bonnington House, Scotland

Nathan Coley
In Memory, 2010
Poured concrete, grass, gravel, dead tree, recycled headstones
2.5 × 7.5 × 7.5 m
Jupiter Artland, Bonnington House, Scotland

Nathan Coley
Fear of Death, 2009
Painted wood and mixed media
242 × 242 × 50 cm each

Nathan Coley
Palace, 2008
Painted timber
9.5 × 4.1 × 5.6 m

Publications

Online

Nathan Coley
Parafin, 2017

Links

Nathan Coley website