Pipeline is pleased to present Renegade, a solo exhibition by Conor Rogers as part of a gallery exchange with non-profit gallery Slugtown in Newcastle. Rogers reclaims derogatory concepts and transforms them into a symbol of defiance and strength. Within his approach to the gallery exchange, Rogers has created a site-specific work that explores the local history and landscape of its Shieldfield estate and community.
Rogers defies conventional narratives through selected works that prioritise council estates, domestic spaces, and communities that are often misunderstood. Rogers transforms the purpose of items from everyday life, such as betting slips, rizla paper, and drug baggies. His site-responsive work to Shieldfield, the council estate where Slugtown Gallery is located, explores the gallery’s history and its previous purposes. One of the uses of the space was a Pharmacy, a local place of healing for the community. The artwork is painted directly onto a pharmacy leaflet to create a dialogue between the material and the depicted image to emphasise the significance of place, history and the symbolism of healing in working-class environments.
In combining image and object Rogers endeavors to expose the reality of life in Britain. The artworks within the exhibition are by-products of deep personal connections formed from lived experience, memory, and conversation. They explore social commentary, cultural identities, class dynamics, stereotypes, and our sense of self. Rogers’ innovative approach in Renegade not only allows for the exploration of a new city but also fosters new connections and establishes new meanings. By addressing stereotypes associated with regional communities that exist within London, Newcastle and Sheffield, the exhibition probes the differences, similarities, and insecurities of contemporary British society.
Conor Rogers (b. 1992, Sheffield, Uk) lives and works in Sheffield. He completed his BA in Creative Arts Practice in 2014 from Sheffield Hallam University. In 2015 he was selected as part of The Bloomberg New Contemporaries. In 2018 Rogers represented Great Britain at the Mediterranea 18 biennale in Tirana, Albania. In 2019, Rogers was named the 1st Prize winner of the Robert Walters Group UK New Artist of the Year Award held at the Saatchi Gallery, London. Recent selected group shows include Collyer Bristow Gallery, London (2020); Guts Gallery, London (2021); OOF Gallery, London (2021); The Holden Gallery, Manchester (2021) and the Millenium Gallery, in partnership with the National Portrait Gallery and Sheffield Museums (2022). In 2021 Roger’s completed his solo show at Freelands Foundation interim show, Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield. Rogers' work is held in The Arts Council Collection and Museum Sheffield Collection, acquired by The National Portrait Gallery. 'Renegade' is Rogers' first solo exhibition with a London-based gallery.
