Darren Coffield (born 1969, in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

) is a British painter.

Biography

Coffield studied at

Goldsmiths College Goldsmiths, University of London, formerly Goldsmiths College, University of London, is a Member institutions of the University of London, constituent research university of the University of London. It was originally founded in 1891 as The G ...

Camberwell School of Art Camberwell College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. The college offers further and higher education programmes, including postgraduate and PhD awards. ...

and the

Slade School of Art The UCL Slade School of Fine Art (informally The Slade) is the art school of University College London (UCL) and is based in London, England. It has been ranked as the UK's top art and design educational institution. The school is organised as ...

in London, where he received his Bachelor's Degree in 1993 in Fine Arts. He has exhibited at venues ranging from the

Courtauld Institute The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. The art collection is known particularly for ...

Somerset House Somerset House is a large neoclassical architecture, neoclassical building complex situated on the south side of the Strand, London, Strand in central London, overlooking the River Thames, just east of Waterloo Bridge. The Georgian era quadran ...

to the

National Portrait Gallery National Portrait Gallery may refer to: * National Portrait Gallery (Australia), in Canberra * National Portrait Gallery (Sweden), in Mariefred *National Portrait Gallery (United States), in Washington, D.C. *National Portrait Gallery, London ...

, London. In the early 1990s, Coffield worked with

Joshua Compston Joshua Richard Compston (1 June 1970 – 5 March 1996) was a London curator whose company Factual Nonsense was closely associated with the emergence of the Young British Artists (YBAs). Early life and career beginnings Compston was born in Put ...

on the formation of Factual Nonsense — the centre of the emerging

YBA YBA or yba can refer to a number of things: * Young British Artists, a movement of British artists in the 1980s and 1990s * Yala language, a language spoken in Ogoja, Nigeria, by ISO 639 code * Young Buddhist Association, an association of Bud ...

scene. He subsequently wrote ''Factual Nonsense: The Art and Death of Joshua Compston'', published in 2013. In 2003, his controversial portrait of

Ivan Massow Ivan Julian Massow (born 11 September 1967) is a British financial services entrepreneur, gay rights campaigner, and media personality. He is also a former chairman of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. He has been active in UK po ...

, former chairman of the ICA, in fox hunting attire, was exhibited at the

in London. Coffield has painted portraits of

Molly Parkin Molly Parkin (born Molly Noyle Thomas, 3 February 1932) is a Welsh painter, novelist and journalist, who became most well-known for her work on ''Nova'' magazine, newspapers and television in the 1960s. Early life Parkin was born on 3 February ...

George Galloway George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer. He has been leader of the Workers Party of Britain since he founded it in 2019, and is a former leader of the Respect Party. Until 2003, he was a member ...

, and

Peter Tatchell Peter Gary Tatchell (born 25 January 1952) is an Australian-born British human rights campaigner, best known for his work with LGBT social movements. Tatchell was selected as the Labour Party (UK), Labour Party's Parliament of the United Kingdo ...

. Coffield has painted

Arthur Scargill Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the 1984–1985 UK miners' strike, a major event in the history o ...

using coal dust as a medium, and made

protest art Protest art is the creative works produced by activists and social movements. It is a traditional means of communication, utilized by a cross section of collectives and the state to inform and persuade citizens. Protest art helps arouse base emo ...

prints relating to

The Battle of Orgreave The Battle of Orgreave was a violent confrontation on 18 June 1984 between pickets and officers of the South Yorkshire Police (SYP) and other police forces, including the Metropolitan Police, at a British Steel Corporation (BSC) coking plant ...

. Coffield lives and works in London.

Work

Many of Coffield's paintings deal with cultural and political historical references. He references early Romantic artists such as

Henry Fuseli Henry Fuseli ( ; ; 7 February 1741 – 17 April 1825) was a Swiss painter, draughtsman, and writer on art who spent much of his life in Britain. Many of his successful works depict supernatural experiences, such as '' The Nightmare''. He pr ...

and

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

. ''The Triumph of David'' (1996), for example, combined a

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a French painter who was a leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythologic ...

painting with an image of the marriage of

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

and

Lady Diana Spencer Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William ...

to create a new image. In the ''Paradox Portraits'' series, Coffield inverts well known faces, in "an exploration of celebrity, identity and perception".

Publications

* Factual Nonsense: The Art and Death of Joshua Compston * Photographers of the Colony Room Club (Self-published 2020) * Tales from the Colony Room: Soho's Lost Bohemia (Unbound, 2021)

References

External links

Official website of Darren Coffield

Darren Coffield at the National Portrait Gallery, London
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coffield, Darren 1969 births Painters from London 20th-century British painters British male painters 21st-century British painters Living people Alumni of the Slade School of Fine Art British postmodern artists English contemporary artists 20th-century British male artists 21st-century British male artists