Nathaniel Mellors

Nathaniel Mellors (born December 1974, Doncaster, Yorkshire, England) is an English contemporary artist and musician.

Education He studied at the University of Oxford's Ruskin Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, the Royal College of Art Mellors' output includes installation, sculpture, film and video, music, performance, collage, painting, prints and critical writing.

He has exhibited in numerous group shows, including: 2012 "Radical Languages", Cricoteka, Kraków, 2011 ILLUMInations, 54th Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy, 2011 "Un'Expressione Geografica", Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, 2010 British Art Show 7 – In The Days of The Comet, Hayward Gallery, London & UK touring, 2009 Altermodern, Tate Triennial, Tate Britain, London, , and Deep Screen, Stedelijk Museum CS, Amsterdam.

His work in the show Art Now: The Way in Which it Landed, curated by Ryan Gander at Tate Britain in 2008, was Thinking Rock Speaks, an empty speech bubble made of steel attached to a lump of alabaster. Los Angeles, Monitor Video & Contemporary Art, Rome, Stigter van Doesburg, Amsterdam & Matt's Gallery, London.

He teaches in the School of Art, Architecture & Design at Leeds Beckett University and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam. He lives and works in Los Angeles, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, London & Yorkshire, UK.

Projects In 2009 at the South London Gallery, he put on a one night stage version of his film, The Time Surgeon. Jessica Lack in The Guardian described the variety of styles and genres in his films, "skimming off a wide range of artistic references from prog rock to hit TV series The Prisoner, with which he creates brilliantly offbeat installations". Adrian Searle in The Guardian said: "There is a lot of bad acting and declaiming, a succession of dreadful puns, gags about a time-travelling Doctor Poo and Father Shit-mass, and some mock golden showers. Imagine the 120 Days of Sodom redone as panto.

In 2011, Ourhouse, Mellors' first major solo exhibition in a UK public institution, was presented at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London. The exhibition included a three-part video installation alongside animatronic sculptures featuring characters from the films.

In September 2011, Mellors selected a playlist of music that inspires him in his work. "Music was my way into art school. I was involved in music from my very early teens – tape collage and improvising with a microphone and an analogue delay pedal with friends. We had no technical ability at all. It was great! The experience of improvising with sound has been a handy touchstone ever since in terms of approaching art making. His playlist includes Sonny Sharrock, GZA, Country Teasers and The Notorious B.I.G.

Mellors was nominated for the Jarman Award in 2012 and was the recipient of the Cobra Art Prize in 2011 and the Contemporary Art Society annual award in 2014. Presented by Turner Prize-winning artist Martin Creed, the £40,000 award goes towards creating a film forming the centrepiece of a 15 month exhibition on the themes of Samuel Beckett and The Theatre of the Absurd.

In 2013, Mellors completed a residency with the Hammer Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, culminating in a 35mm short film titled The Sophisticated Neanderthal Interview. The film toured to Dublin's Temple Bar Gallery in 2014.

Personal life In 2015, Mellors married Tala Madani, an Iranian-American artist, in Los Angeles. They have two children.

Solo exhibitions

2018 "Progressive Rocks", New Museum, New York 2017 "The Aalto Natives (with Erkka Nissinen)", Finnish Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2017 2016 "Prequel Dump", The Box, Los Angeles 2014 "NEW_CAVE_ART_NOW", Stigter van Doesburg, Amsterdam 2014 "The Sophisticated Neanderthal Interview", Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw 2014 "The Sophisticated Neanderthal Interview", Temple Bar Gallery, Dublin 2014 "INTRUSION#1, Nathaniel Mellors – Ourhouse Episodes 1&2". The View, Switzerland 2014 "Nathaniel Mellors", Hammer Museum, Los Angeles 2013 "Nathaniel Mellors – Ourhouse", Galway Arts Centre, Ireland 2013 Nathaniel Mellors & Jimmy Joe Roche, Baltimore Museum of Art (2-person show) 2012 Recent Collaborations Before THE SAPROPHAGE, MONITOR, Rome 2012 "Ourhouse Episode 3, 'The Cure of Folly'", Malmö Konsthall, Sweden 2012 "Ourhouse E3 feat. BAD COPY", Salle de Bains, Lyon 2012 Ourhouse E3 feat. BAD COPY, Matt's Gallery, London 2011 The Nest, Cobra Museum, Amstelveen Cobra Museum Exhibitions (Dutch) 2011 Artist's Statement Series: Nathaniel Mellors & Chris Bloor – :HYPERCOLON:, SMART Project Space, Amsterdam 2011 Nathaniel Mellors: Ourhouse, I.C.A., London 2010 Ourhouse, De Hallen, Haarlem 2009 Giantbum, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam 2009 Giantbum, Monterhermoso, Vitoria, Spain

1989 The New Sharp (with Simon Johns) 1990 – 1991 Autobutcher (with Simon Johns, Chris Barter, Ashley Marlowe and Grant Newman) 1991 – 1993 Corridor (with Chris Barter, Ashley Marlowe and Grant Newman) 1992 – 1999 Conemelt (with Ashley Marlowe and Grant Newman) 2002 Prince Lightning 2002 – present Junior Aspirin Records 2002 – 2007 Skill 7 Stamina 12 (with Dan Fox, Ashley Marlowe and Maaike Schoorel) 2003 – present God in Hackney (with Andy Cooke, Dan Fox and Ashley Marlowe) 2006 Mysterius Horse (with Dan Fox) 2008 – present Advanced Sportswear (with Dan Fox and Ashley Marlowe)

Collections Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Preston Harris Museum. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.