Artist statement
My subject matter is what Virginia Woolf called ‘moments of being’, those moments in life which, despite their ordinariness, seem charged with meaning and significance.
My paintings are filled with narrative but resilient to any attempts to extract any clear story or message. Often cropped to the point of illegibility the images remain charged with an intensity which is difficult to define. They often appear like stories you've joined part of the way through with few clues as to what you've already missed.
Although my interest lies in the incompleteness of images and what they communicate, I don't necessarily look at the resultant fluidity of meaning as something sinister or threatening. I look at how this incompleteness invites the viewer to see what lies beyond an image and the possibilities this opens up. Everyday scenes become transcendent when looked at from a different angle, just as everyday moments can be charged with a meaning outside our immediate grasp.
Qualifications and training
- 2000 BA Hons Interactive Arts First Class, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester
Solo exhibitions
- 2011 Recent Works by Darren Nixon, Cornerhouse Projects Space, Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester
- 2011 Obstruction, Rogue Studios Manchester, Manchester (more info)
- 2005 Nixon's The One, Battery Park, Manchester
- 2005 Women Waiting, Imitate Gallery, Manchester
- 2004 Two by Two, Arc Gallery, Manchester
- 2004 New Paintings, Kro2, Manchester
- 2004 Orangutan in the Trees, Paperchase Manchester, Manchester
- 2003 You Know Who I Am, Warsaw Projects, Manchester
- 2003 Three Men With Big Hair, Paperchase Manchester, Manchester
- 2003 Squeeze, Joose, Bristol
- 2000 Barely There, Pellicanneck Records/Piccadilly Records, Manchester
Group exhibitions
- 2013 This Me of Mine, ATP Gallery, London (more info)
- 2013 London Art Fair, Business Design Centre, London
- 2012 Rogue Studios Open Weekend, Rogue Studios, Manchester (more info)
- 2007 Imitate Gallery stall, Tatton Park, Cheshire
- 2006 Sefton Open Final, Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport
- 2006 Nine To Five, Zion Centre, Manchester
- 2005 Sefton Open 2005 Final, Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport
- 2005 Fruiting Bodies, Imitate Gallery, Manchester
- 2004 Albino Mosquito, Zion Centre, Manchester
- 2002 End of the Summer, Fridge Gallery, London
- 2000 Studio 53, The Garage, Stockport
