Faç Off
19 June - 1 August
CENTRAL STATION

Manchester based artists and designers Central Station - Pat and Matt Carroll and Karen Jackson - are synonymous with the second phase of the Factory Records story that saw artists such as Happy Mondays, James and Black Grape launch into the music scene. According to Pat Carroll “We wanted to develop our own voice for the work that was as strong and as fun as the music.” Their arrival on the art and design scene was contemporaneous with the opening of The Haçienda, and the arrival of acid house and Ecstacy and the emergence of the ‘Madchester’ identity which they developed for the Happy Mondays’ ‘Madchester Rave On EP’.

They have been responsible for creating some of the most memorable album artwork of the 90s.. Their artwork is gloriously anarchic, colourful and bold without conforming to any stylistic limitations. Factory Records legend Tony Wilson said of their work: ”The second half of the Factory story is best summed up by the painterly eccentricity of Central Station; Matt, Pat and Karen”.

Central Station had their first art exhibition in 1990 at the Manchester City Art Gallery, featuring 'Playmates' a collection of larger-than-life portraits of famous faces from British film and television. The V&A purchased four paintings for their permanent collection of modern art. The record cover art and film titles they created for '24 Hour Party People' were included in 'Communicate - Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties' a touring exhibition which visited major cities across China and the Far East as well as Europe.

The exhibition title ‘Faç Off’ alludes to a promotional T shirt graphic produced by Central Station in 1990 and the Factory Records naming convention of giving every product a ‘Fac’ number. The Factory catalogue was not confined to only creative output. A party (FAC 83), a lawsuit (FAC 61) and a cat (FAC 191) appear on the catalogue list alongside (FAC 10) Joy Divisions Unknown Pleasures and (FAC 73) New Order Blue Monday. This exhibition's title is (FAC 258).

The show includes a selection of limited edition prints of work from their diverse career. All prints are for sale so buy a piece of music history.

Image: Cover of Black Grape's album It's Great When You're Straight Yeah

Image:Faç Off (FAC 258)

MARK FELL
7 August - 19 September

Mark Fell is a multi-disciplinary artist living and working in Sheffield. He works with new technologies, sound, image and interaction, bringing together interests in experimental electronic musics, contemporary art, philosophy and computer science.

He has performed and exhibited extensively at major international festivals and institutions including: Sonar (Barcelona), Mutek (Montreal), Siggraph (Los Angeles), Powerhouse (Sydney), ACMI (Melbourne), ISEA (Paris), Hong Kong National Film Archive, The Barbican (London) and others.

Over the past ten years Fell has worked as curator of digital music for several international festivals including lovebytes and Sightsonic in the UK, and guest curated "The Year of Living Digitally" in Singapore as well as the Algorithm Stage at the Glade Festival (UK). He has been responsible for the UK premiers of many emerging and established sound artists working with digital technologies, forming a major contribution to the development of this genre within Europe.

Image: Attack On Silence, 2009

Fiona Curran’s paintings, collages and installations conjure up imagined spaces that play with notions of the real and the unreal, utopia and dystopia. Quoting art historical moments from the Baroque, 19th Century Scenic Wallpapers and early Modernism her works engage with a recurring Utopian impulse, formal idealism and sense of escapism that re-registers in a palette borrowed from the computer screen and advertising.

There’s an embrace of optimism and hope in the seductive candy colours alongside a subtle sense of unease in the overblown fluorescents and darker undertones. Geometric shapes fracture and explode outwards in bursts of colour or they appear layered, tangled and folded.

The titles of the works often give a further clue to their origin in this push-pull between promise and disillusion referencing song lyrics, novels and films that speak a language of loss and longing, of fragmentation and ambiguity, where all is not quite as it should be in the bright and beautiful image-world we inhabit. Influences including Tom Waits, J.G Ballard, Don DeLillo are influential in the way the artist deals with mapping emotional space in her work.

The Insecurity of Territory, 2009
Fiona Curran
Acrylic on veneered Wooden Panel
380 × 380 mm

Merrick's practice combines painting with sculpture and the made with the ready-made. The artisit's continued interrogation of painting and process has seen him evolve from working exclusively with oil paint and two-dimensions to gradually introducing new materials (Fablon, gaffa tape, furniture, scrap metal, strip lighting, gloss paint) in order to investigate colour, shape and form.

'Untitled' (Construction), 2009
Aluminium, stainless steel, metal primer, spray paint, fluorescent light fittings
160cm x 190cm
Photo credit: Colin Davison