Harris Museum & Art Gallery
Mel Brimfield (b.1976, Oxford, UK) lives and works in London. Brimfield is an artist working in film and live performance. Recent solo exhibitions include John Hansard Gallery, Southampton (2013); Peter Scott Gallery, Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (2012); Ceri Hand Gallery, London (2012); Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2011); and Mead Gallery, University of Warwick (2011).
Brimfield has recently been commissioned by artSOUTH Collaborations (2013); Henry Moore Institute, Leeds (2012) and the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2011). Mel Brimfield’s wide-ranging multimedia works draw on photography, experimental theatre, writing and painting to build alternative realities, using fake documents and records to bring to life a universe populated by Brimfield’s performances and collaborations with other artists.
Brimfield’s works were acquired through Testing Media, an Art Fund initiative set up with the Contemporary Art Society to support the acquisition of contemporary art in new or challenging media. Nineteen works have been acquired that highlight key moments in Brimfield’s career, from collaborative films created for past performances and meticulously drawn and painted posters for imaginary erotic magazines about Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth, to five photographs recreating moments in the life of Jackson Pollock from the perspective of the canvas, a filmed music hall performance starring a fictional raconteur, and posters anticipating her proposed 2015 exhibition at The Hepworth Wakefield.
Presented by the Art Fund and the Contemporary Art Society, 2014