MAT COLLISHAW: THE NEW ART GALLERY WALSALL

The New Art Gallery Walsall is delighted to present a major survey exhibition by British artist Mat Collishaw, the first in a UK public gallery for over ten years. The exhibition includes photography, film, sculpture and installation and testifies to the richness and breadth of Collishaw’s practice, highlighting and exploring some of the overriding themes and preoccupations within his work.

Mat Collishaw is fascinated by the darker side of human nature. He has never shied away from difficult or challenging subject matter; ideas that deal with death, destruction and decay are revealed as beautiful, hypnotic and compelling. In Collishaw’s world, seduction meets repulsion, the shocking becomes alluring, the beautiful becomes squalid and desire meets pain. As an artist, he is especially aware of the power of the image to manipulate and he draws his inspiration from a range of sources such as the media, popular culture, nature, mythology, the slick vernacular of advertising, the rich seams of art history and the proliferation of images available through the internet.