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Memories Materialised

A browser-based virtual walk-through of a section of Stockport Road, in Manchester’s Levenshulme area (UK) in 1963, created entirely from the memories of eye witnesses. Two groups of people from the area, aged around 15 and aged 70+, worked together to creat the online archive. See the walk-through and archive at: www.memoriesmaterialised.com

About

Grennan & Sperandio

“Mr Grennan and Mr Sperandio tweak our notion of what art is and who it is for.” Roberta Smith, New York Times Simon Grennan and Christopher Sperandio met at the University of Illinois, Chicago in 1988 and have worked together exclusively as a team since 1990. Grennan works from north Wales, and Sperandio works from Houston, Texas. Two things remain constant in their practice: they always work together and their work invariably involves the authorial or editorial participation of other people – other members of the public. Their work often utilizes media that are culturally compromised: chocolate, comic books and television, appearing at social sites of consumption in the home and store and on the street.
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They are best known for working with the unionized employees of a Chicago chocolate factory to mass produce a new chocolate bar with Sculpture Chicago program ‘Culture in Action’ (1993), for making and distributing collaboratively-made comic books in partnership with DC Comics, Fantagraphics Books and others (1995, continuing) and for the creation of two U.S. reality television series, ‘Artstar’ and ‘Artstar II’ (2006, 2008). Grennan & Sperandio worked with Colin de Land, American Fine Arts Company, from 1995. They are often seen as part of a critical history of artists whose work is focused on social narrative and social exchange. Over the last twenty years, this history of practice has been described as ‘interventionist’, ‘New Genre’, and ‘Relational’. In 2010, Bucharest Biennial curator Felix Vogel chose the term ‘handlung’ (‘acting together’) to describe the social turn in this approach to practice. Curriculum Vitae Education 2008 – 2011 PhD. University of the Arts London (Grennan) 1988-1990 Master of Fine Art. University of Illinois at Chicago. 1984-1988 Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art). Reading University (Grennan) 1984-1987 Bachelor of Fine Arts. West Virginia University (Sperandio) Selected Projects and Exhibitions 2013 Great Places Housing Group, Manchester 2012 South Bristol Community Hospital 2012 A New Direction, London 2011 Royal Society of Arts, London 2011 Firstsite, Colchester 2011 Blackpool Borough Council 2011 Towneley Hall, Burnley 2011 London Thames Gateway 2011 The Poor Farm, Manawa 2010 Lanternhouse, Ulverston 2010 Wit Residency, Ann Arbor 2010 Tyne and Wear Museums, Newcastle 2010 Big Things on the Beach, Edinburgh 2009 NGBK / Projekt U-10, Berlin 2009 Barrhead Housing Association, Glasgow 2009 Caia Park Communities First, Wrexham 2009 Blackpool Borough Council, Blackpool 2008 Camden Borough Council, London 2008 Safle, Cardiff 2008 Creative Time, New York 2008 Gallery HD Television, New York 2008 Gunpowder Park, London 2008 The Lowry, Salford 2008 Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown, Wales 2007 West Virginia University, Morgantown 2007 Audiences Wales, Cardiff 2007 Northampton Museums Service 2006 Gallery HD Television/Jeffrey Deitch Gallery New York 2006 English Heritage, Berwick-upon-Tweed 2006 Arts Marketing Hampshire, Winchester 2005 English Heritage, Thetford 2005 Sussex Arts Marketing, Brighton 2005 Madrid Abierto, Madrid, Spain 2004 Livesey Museum for Children, London 2004 Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne 2004 Hayward Gallery, London 2003 De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea 2002 Museum of Modern Art/PS1, New York 2002 Asda Wal-Mart, Swindon 2002 Arts About Manchester, Manchester 2002 Canterbury City Council, Canterbury 2001 Palais de Tokyo, Paris 2001 Time Based Arts, Hull 2001 Milton Keynes Council, Milton Keynes 2001 Arhus Kunstmuseum, Arhus 2001 Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna 2001 Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow 2001 Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead 2001 Channel 4 Television, London 2000 Hasselblad Centre, Gottenburg 2000 Centre for the Arts, San Francisco 2000 Art in Hospitals Trust, St Leonards 2000 Moss Side and Hulme Partnership, Manchester 2000 Harris Museum, Preston 1999 Centre for Visual Arts, Cardiff 1999 Public Art Fund, New York 1999 South London Gallery, London 1998 Photo98. London/Edinburgh 1998 School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Boston 1998 Seattle Art Museum, Seattle 1998 Tate Gallery Liverpool, Henry Moore Inst. England 1997 Ikon Gallery, Birmingham 1997 National Museum of Photography, Bradford 1997 Art Forum Magazine, New York 1997 Gallerie Phillipe Rizzo, Paris 1996 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1996 Centre for Curatorial Studies, New York 1996 American Fine Arts Co. New York 1996 Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow 1996 Institute of Contemporary Arts. London 1995 Cornerhouse. Manchester 1995 Eastern State Penitentiary. Philadelphia 1995 Salisbury Festival. Salisbury 1994 Centre for the Arts, San Francisco 1994 Towner Gallery and Museum, Eastbourne 1994 James Hockey Gallery, Farnham 1993 Grey Art Gallery, New York. 1993 Sculpture Chicago, Chicago 1992 Lakeview Museum of Arts and Science Peoria. 1992 Astley Cheetham Collection, Stalybridge 1991 Stadtische Gallerie Fellbach, Fellbach 1991 Manchester City Art Galleries. Manchester 1990 Five Urban Churches, Chicago Selected Exhibitions 2006 Bloomberg Space, London 2003 Tate Modern, London 2000 Hasselblad Centre, Gottenburg 2000 Up in the Air, Liverpool 1999 Project Row Houses, Houston "Street Life" 1999 Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago "Transmute" 1998 Green Nafthali Gallery, New York 1997 Centre for Curatorial Studies, New York "a/drift" 1997 Philippe Rizzo Gallery, Paris 1996 CAPC Museé d'art Contemporain, Bordeaux 1995 Swiss Institute. New York 1994 American Fine Arts Co. New York 1993 Laure Genillard Gallery. London "Vox Pop" 1993 Daniel Bucholz Gallery. Cologne "Lotus Club" 1993 Anderson O'Day Gallery. London "Times" 1992 Artist's Space. New York"Warp and Woof " 1991 Kettle's Yard Gallery. Cambridge "Post Morality". 1990 Randolph Street Gallery. Chicago Selected Awards 2003 Rootstein Hopkins Foundation Project Grant 1998 Friends of the Contemporary, Seattle. 1997 National lottery A4E (On Line) 1996 Collectors' Fund, Boston (Dirt) 1995 National Endowment for the Arts (Life in Prison) 1994 Paul Hamlyn Foundation (Six Eastbourne Dentists) 1993 John and Catherine McArthur Foundation (Sculpture Chicago) 1992 Lila Wallace / Reader's Digest Foundation (Sculpture Chicago) 1990 Illinois Arts Council (Community Arts Access Program). Selected Publications 2013 Memories Materialised, Great Places Housing Group, Manchester 2012 TRUCE! Tableaux, A New Direction, London 2011 Colchester Round, Firstsite, Colchester 2011 Profound Colours, Lanternhouse, Ulverston 2011 From Here to the Imaginary and Back, NGBK Berlin 2010 Siege and Storm, Tyne and Wear Museums, Newcastle 2009 Wisdom of Barrhead and Neilston, Barrhead Housing, Glasgow 2009 Wisdom of Caia Park, Cai Park Communities First, Wrexham, 2009 Bloomfield Talks, Blackpool Borough Council, Blackpool 2008 Giant Psychic Avatars of Salford, The Lorwy, Salford, England 2008 Becoming Modern, Oreil Davies, Newtown, Wales 2008 Our Comic Book, Revolver, Frankfurt Am Main, Germany 2008 Fifteen Plus One, Axis Design, Manchester 2008 Kartoon Kings, West Virginia University Press, Morgantown, USA 2008 The Art Below / Without Art I'm Nothing, Audiences Wales, Cardiff 2007 Making It, Northampton Museums Service 2006 The Conversationalists, English Heritage, Berwick-upon-Tweed 2006 Back Then Right Now, AMH, Winchester 2005 Out of the Dark, English Heritage, Thetford 2005 Canterbury Whitefriars Arts Programme, SWPA, Warwick 2005 Here is Wherever, Sussex Arts Marketing, Brighton 2005 Re Views: Art and Public Space, Black Dog Publishing, Oxford 2004 What We Want Is Free, State University of New York Press 2004 Energy, Livesey Museum, London, England 2005 Furthermore, Up in the Air, Liverpool, England 2004 Recent Projects from Public Art Fund, PAF, New York, USA 2004 Strange Cargo, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, England 2003 Comic Release, Zzdap Publishing, Pasadena 2003 One Place After Another, MIT Press, New York, US 2002 What in the World?, Arts About Manchester, Manchester, England 2002 Modern Masters, MoMA/PS1, New York, USA 2001 Glasgow 16/25, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow. 1999 The Invisible City, Public Art Fund, New York 1999 Art School Superstars, School of the Museum, Boston 1999 Buried Treasures. Photo98, England. 1998 The Peasant and the Devil. Seattle Art Museum, Seattle. 1998 Out of Here. Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. 1998 Ghost on the Stair. Art Transpennine 98, England. 1997 Revenge. Ikon Gallery, Birmingham. 1997 One Hundred. National Museum of Photography, Bradford. 1996 Dirt. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 1996 a/drift. Centre for Curatorial Studies, Bard College. USA 1996 Traffic. CAPC Museé d'art Contemporain, Bordeaux, France 1996 Cartoon Hits. London. Institute of Contemporary Arts. 1995 Prison Sentences. Philadelphia. Prison Sentences. 1995 Times Like These... Manchester. Cornerhouse. 1995 Life in Prison. Fantagraphics. 1995 Culture in Action. Chicago.Sculpture Chicago. 1994 Recollections. San Francisco. Centre for the Arts. 1994 Six Eastbourne Dentists. Eastbourne. Towner Art Gallery . 1994 Everyone in Farnham. Farnham. James Hockey Gallery. 1994 Maintenance. New York. College of DuPage. 1993 Anyone in New York. New York. New York University. 1992 At Home with the Collection. New York. Bootstrap. 1991 Belgrove Station Project. Glasgow, Alan Dunn. 1990 The Body Chicago, Bootstrap.