Bio
Daniel Glenister is a British artist, born in Enfield, London (1977). He lives and works in Manchester where he is a Secondary school teacher. After gaining a 1st class Hons degree in Visual Arts & Culture at The University of Salford, he then completed a PGCE at The Manchester Metropolitan University.
Daniel is engaged in his local environments and how they have and are changing. Through his methodical and exploratory approach to documenting the changing environments Daniel has focused on lines and shapes that layered together invents possibilities that define a facade. Structure and chaos constantly engage with one another. The layered ideas deal with past lines, textures and edges that rather than disappear, relocate themselves in relation to new surfaces. This constantly alters the surface quality to play a major part in the make-up of the painting, creating a journey and history to gain its own identity.
"I think that if you can turn off the mind and look only with the eyes, ultimately everything becomes abstract."
Ellsworth Kelly
Exhibitions:
'Miniatures Revisited' Cupola Contemporary Art Gallery, Sheffield, 2024
Manchester Open Exhibition, HOME, 2022
‘We are all in this together’ Bureau, Manchester, 2011
‘On the Edge’ Salford Museum & Art Gallery , 2011
‘A Postcard is worth 1000 words’ APW Gallery, New York, 2009
‘2up2down’ Salford Arts Theatre, 2008
‘Under my Street’ Langworthy Cornerstone, Salford, 2007
Cow Lane Open studios, Cow Lane Studios, Salford, 2004
‘drawing room’ Bankley Studios, Levenshulme, 2000
Downstairs Gallery, Castlefield Art Gallery, 2000
Bankley Open Studios, Bankley Studios, Levenshulme, 1999
University of Salford Library, University of Salford, 1999- present
‘Kunde 1’ Bankley Studios, Levenshulme , 1998
About work:
The paintings between 2000- 2007 are stimulated from the Langworthy Road area of Salford where the terraced houses have been abandoned either for demolition or development, and the fact that the area has under gone so many changes throughout its history. A strange environment has been created where somebody’s once home has now become derelict, and given a colour code by the council either instructing demolition, improve existing etc… on a proposed regeneration map.
Daniel's interest was the rows of empty houses that have a ghost like existence in amongst the re-modification and demolition in the area. The derelict houses gave an insight into the many layers in a home, wallpaper and different colours of paint left on the now exposed surface that was once a front room. These will now be changed in one way or another. All of the paintings are compositions taken from these houses and some reflect the layering of time by continually layering the paint to make up the overall look. The finished colour for these paintings are taken either from the colour coded regeneration map or from the actual colour of the house but beneath this thick flat top colour is the paintings own history. In between the shapes on the canvas and under the surface can be seen previous colours, marks and textures that appear to hint at what used to be there or what it looked like before.
Between 2008 and 2011 work is influenced by a red SPD (Supplementary Planning Document) boundary line that surrounds the regeneration area in Broughton, Salford. Daniel has followed the regeneration map to find the streets where the proposed boundary would be. His interest is how this imaginative boundary line would actually look in reality. The colour red allows Daniel to explore composition. The strong red mark and the surrounding shapes become an integral part of the image and in the paintings; layers of time and history are documented in photography and literally the layering of paint. An intrigue is created to reference what was once there.
Images range from photocopied photographs with red tape on to paintings that use photographs to guide composition. The work looks at past and present and tries to question and explore qualities found in paint by using drips, blemishes, strokes and texture to hint at a forever changing landscape.
The photographs from this period document the red paintings that have been displayed and positioned on a street or area where the SPD Boundary line would run. Over a period of weeks and months oil painted canvas’s were placed around the Broughton area. Why? Firstly, the colour red had become one of the themes and therefore Daniel wanted to illustrate this in a real context. Second of all intrigue, to see what would happen to the paintings and finally frustration, wanting to show people the work and sharing what his interest in the area involves. Daniel documented any changes to the canvases over a period of time with the hope of something happening to them whether through the changing elements or vandalism. The paintings went through a number of different journeys of their own, one was slashed then eventually ripped apart and some were stolen but in nearly all the cases a clue was left at some stage to show the painting had been acknowledged. Either the remains of a piece of red canvas or the two mirror plates left hanging, redundant on the wall or red finger prints dotted on a fence. The paintings created intrigue and when they were stolen or vandalised any wondering or whys may be either answered or further confused by reading the text on the back of the canvas ‘SPD BOUNDARY LINE Daniel Glenister’.
Daniel's paintings all have a common theme. They are stimulated by the decay and ever changing environment, a mixture of old and new, contrasting and conflicting surfaces that are ultimately looking for a sense of order and structure in amongst the chaos and wear and tear of life. His paintings deal with layers of change, from chaotic mark making to a structured facade, a cycle of old and new. A process of balance exploration. The importance of the square acts as a structure and platform for accidents and corrections to anchor to. The brush marks, drips, smudges and blemishes are all looking for awkwardness. They are disjointed sections, repeated parts of something bigger, looking for an order in amongst a busy world.
daniel glenister
VISUAL ARTIST/TEACHER