Woodhorn Museum – longlistshort

“Untitled Club Painting”, 2015, Acrylic on canvas

“Untitled Gutter Painting”, 2014, Acrylic on canvas

“Untitled Black Door Painting (304) “, 2013, Acrylic on canvas

“Untitled Yard Painting (Albert)”, 2015, Acrylic on canvas

These contemplative paintings are from This Must Be the Place, Newcastle-based artist Narbi Price’s 2017 exhibition at Vane Gallery.

From Vane’s website about the exhibition:

Narbi Price’s work involves journeys to specific places that have witnessed a range of events – variously historical, famous, personal or forgotten.

He researches the precise location of a chosen event, ranging from significant moments in music, film and TV, whimsical acts through to places of violence and death amongst others. Working from photographs taken at the site, he makes paintings in the studio focusing on the abstract, formal and painterly qualities of the resultant images.

This process removes the conscious choice of subject matter; he must work with whatever is present at the spot. Whilst clearly photographically derived, the paintings use the language of abstraction to simultaneously acknowledge and disrupt the representational image. The paint is transparent, opaque, glossy, matt, dilute and impasted, often within the same work. As viewers, we are not immediately made aware of the specific histories of the sites and are given space to wonder about the multiplicities of events that might have taken place, an effect heightened by the painting method. Our experience of the work shifts as we become aware of the provenance of the depicted sites.

Below are the stories behind the locations for the paintings in this post (in bold type). All of the paintings in the exhibition can be found on Vane’s website.

Untitled Club Painting (2015) features the Salford Lads Club, made famous in the artwork and videos for The Smiths 1986 album The Queen is Dead.

Untitled Gutter Painting and Untitled Path Painting (2014) show the anonymous locations where the artist was the victim of an unprovoked attack in his hometown, Hartlepool.

Untitled Yard Painting (Albert) and Untitled Yard Painting (Harold) (2015) depict the filming locations of the yard gates in the iconic Steptoe and Son TV sitcom and spin-off films respectively, the former now an actual scrap yard and the latter a plate glass office building.

Untitled Black Door Painting (304) (2012) shows the door to the home of record producer Joe Meek, famous for Telstar by The Tornados, where in 1967, in a fit of depression, he shot and killed his landlady and himself.

The gallery also has an interesting interview with Price where he discusses some of his more recent work, as well as his location choices, and the possible experience for the viewer (excerpt below).

What connects the events that took place at the sites you depict in your paintings? They seem to be quite a random collection, from personal events and things that happened locally, to historical crime scenes and stories from popular and underground culture.

I suppose it could be read as a grand act of self-portraiture, the events are those that resonate with me in some way. I think it’s a very human thing to do, to want to connect with the past somehow, physically, by putting yourself in the place where something happened. Be that to feel closer to a lost loved one, or an idol, to pay respects to strangers who suffered, or whatever. I don’t know what we expect to experience when we get to the spot, some psychic resonance perhaps? I want the paintings that take these things onboard to turn down the noise that we might experience in reality. To shift the focus to the looking, the experience. I suppose now, I’m making paintings where other people have been but are no longer.

Do you think it’s important for viewers to have knowledge of the events that took place at these locations, or are you happy for viewers to make up their own narratives?

It’s important that the paintings operate on their own terms, as paintings first and foremost. And when it comes to histories I see that as a many layered thing. We (and I) focus on sites usually because of a singular event but there are innumerable events that have also taken place at any given location, that we will and can never know. I find that fascinating too. We ascribe value to drama, but the paintings take that away. They allow a more contemplative space. This is why the event or history that I’ve chosen is never completely explicit, it’s coded into the titling or in the gallery interpretation. I want there to remain space for more complex interpretation, which is why the paint frequently also does perhaps unexpected things.

Price has since gone on to win several awards and shown several new painting series. He also curated a 2018 exhibition of work by the Ashington Group (also known as the Pitmen Painters) at the Woodhorn Museum in Ashington.

His interest in the history of the miners of Northeast England continued this past year in his work for Going Back Brockens. The traveling exhibition features his paintings and a sound installation by writer Mark Hudson. The exhibition is spending its last few weeks at Sunderland Museum and Winter Gardens, where it is on view until 1/31/26.

From the museum:

Going Back Brockens is a major exhibition from award-winning artist Narbi Price and acclaimed writer Mark Hudson, sharing stories of hope and aspiration in mining communities 40 years after the Miners’ Strike.

The show features 43 new paintings by Narbi depicting locations across County Durham connected to the mining industry as they are now, alongside a sound installation created by Mark using interviews recorded with the people of Horden between 1991 – 92, several years after the Miners’ Strike.

Following the initial display of the exhibition in locations throughout County Durham, including Bishop Auckland, the Durham Miners’ Gala and Horden, this will be the first museum gallery showing of Going Back Brockens.

The exhibition also features Where We Belong, a series of short films by Carl Joyce inspired by Mark Hudson’s evocative book Coming Back Brockens.