Biography
Darren Coffield was born in London in 1969. He studied at Goldsmiths College,
Camberwell School of Art and the Slade School of Art in London where he received
his Bachelor of Fine Art in 1993. He has exhibited widely with many leading artists including
Damien Hirst, Howard Hodgkin, Patrick Caulfield and Gilbert and George at venues
ranging from the Courtauld Institute, Somerset House to Voloshin Museum, Crimea.
Coffield's work can be found in collections around the world. In 2003 his
controversial portrait of Ivan Massow,
former chairman of the ICA in full
fox hunting costume was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Portraits of George Galloway and Molly Parkin (NPG, 2010) followed, and most recently a depiction of former Miners Union leader Arthur Scargill made entirely from ground up crystals of coal. In the early nineties Coffield worked with Joshua Compston on the formation of Factual Nonsense - the centre of the emerging
Young British Artists scene. A new book by Coffield about this period in British Art, Factual Nonsense: The Art and death of Joshua Compston is to be published in the UK in December by Beautiful Books. Coffield lives and works in London.
Education
- 1989 - 1993
- BA in Fine Art (hons), Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK
- 1988 - 1989
- Camberwell School of Art, London, UK
- 1987
- Goldsmiths College, London, UK
Selected Exhibitions
- 2011
- EAST POP WEST, Red Gallery, London
- 2011
- In The Flesh, Paul Stolper Gallery, London
- 2011
- Scope Basel, Switzerland
- 2011
- Ashes & Diamonds, (touring exhibition)
- Market Hall, Chesterfield
- Northern College, Barnsley
- NUM Headquarters, Yorkshire
- 2011
- Fabricatecstasy, Studio 52, Hoxton Square, London
- 2011
- Peeping Tom, Kunsthal KAdE, Amersfoort, The Netherlands
- 2011
- The Recession Show, Curator, London Art Fair Projects, London
- 2010
- John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize 2010, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool
- 2010
- East End Promise: A Story of Cultural Migrants 1985-2000, Red Gallery, London
- 2010
- Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London
- 2010
- BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London
- 2010
- Peeping Tom, Vegas Gallery, London
- 2010
- East Wing IX, The Courtauld Institute of Art, Somerset House, London
- 2009
- The Live Art Auction, L-13 Gallery, London
- 2009
- Turner Contemporary Open 2009, Turner Contemporary Project Space, Margate
- 2009
- De Queeste artists, Quest 21, Brussels, Belgium
- 2009
- Plein Air Exhibition, Saint-Sophia Cathedral, Kiev, Ukraine
- 2009
- The Mission, Hackney Wick, London
- 2009
- The Big Ink, Amersham Arms, London
- 2009
- Police and Violence, Sassoon Gallery, London
- 2009
- Open Salon, Viewfinder Gallery, London
- 2008
- Plein air, Maximilian Voloshin Museum, Koktebel, Crimea
- 2008
- Jerwood Drawing Prize 2008, (touring exhibition)
- Jerwood Space, London
- Durham Art Gallery, Durham City
- Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery, Suffolk
- Winchester Discovery Centre, Winchester
- Pittville Gallery, Cheltenham
- 2008
- Insurgent Works, Ghetto Gallery, Split, Croatia
- 2008
- The Famous, the Infamous & the Really Quite Good, Decima Gallery, London
- 2008
- Conditions Humaines, De Queeste Art, Abele, Belgium
- 2007
- I Love Peckham Shop Windows, Peckham, London
- 2007
- Far from Eden, Hotel de Ville, Hondschoote, France
- 2007
- Far from Eden, Vinkemkerk, Beauvoorde, Belgium
- 2007
- Château Planet, Galerie Planet, Magnac Laval, France
- 2007
- Artists vs Celebrity, The Brick Lane Gallery, London
- 2006
- Drugaddict Show, Guy Hilton Gallery, London
- 2006
- Château Planet, Galerie Planet, Magnac Laval, France
- 2005
- Artists' Pictionary, The Agency Contemporary Gallery, London
- 2004
- Board Meeting, Fake London Genius, Savile Row, London
- 2003
- BP Portrait Award, Aberdeen Art Gallery, Aberdeen, Scotland
- 2003
- BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London
- 2003
- Artists of the Colony Room Club, Elms Lesters Painting Rooms, London
- 2000
- Artists Room, The Westbourne Hotel, London
- 2000
- Less Filth, More Fury, Soho House, London
- 1999
- Richard Dadd's 30th Birthday Party, Bedlam Performance Art, A.S.C, Rosebery Avenue, London
- 1999
- Banality Begins at Home, Performance Bar Art, Colony Room Club, Soho, London
- 1999
- The I.C.A presents... A.S.C, Rosebery Avenue, London
- 1999
- Ainsworth Unearthed, Performance/Public reading, Kensal Green Cemetery, London
- 1999
- Well Hung, London
- 1998
- The Colony Room Club 50th Anniversary Art Exhibition, A22 Projects, London
- 1998
- Terminal Beach, G, London
- 1998
- Whitechapel Open Studios, London
- 1997
- Whitechapel Open Studios, London
- 1996
- Displaced A.S.C., London
- 1995
- Factual Nonsense, London
- 1994
- Factual Nonsense, London
- 1993
- Factual Nonsense, London
- 1992
- A Guide For The Perplexed, Factual Nonsense, London
- 1992
- Abstractions From a Domestic Suburb Scene, Benjamin Rhodes Gallery, London
- 1992
- Empty Gestures, Diorama, London
- 1991
- One Man Down, The Pearson Gallery, UCL, London
- 1991
- The Courtauld Institute Loan Collection, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London
Bibliography
- SCOPE for the best, IDentity Magazine, September 2011
- Liverpool Biennial, BBC News North West, September 19, 2010
- Nice painting. I'll take two., Metro, June 24, 2010
- BP Portrait Prize 2010 catalogue, National Portrait Gallery
- City Diary, The Times, July 29 and 31, 2009
- Succulent Legume, May 2009
- Segodnya, Today Newspaper, Ukraine, October 10, 2008
- Graphic illustrations of personal and political themes, Tribune, October 3, 2008
- Jerwood Drawing Prize 2008, Exhibition catalogue, September 2008
- The Colony - A Documentary Preview, Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (DVD), BFI, August 2008
- Darren Coffield Slikar Pobunjenik (Insurgent Artist), Jutarnji List (Croatian National Newspaper), August 2, 2008
- Verduta, Exhibition catalogue, April 2008
- Radio Peckham, April 7, 2008
- Let's not carp about Ivan, Evening Standard, September 24, 2007
- Art make-over for Peckham, BBC News, Transmission: August 6, 2007 (TV)
- Vervan Loind' Eden, Exhibition catalogue, July 2007
- Channel 4 Dispatches, Transmission: July 2007 (TV)
- Out of the picture, East London Advertiser, May 3, 2007
- The Shoreditch Map, February 2007, issue 91
- Artist and a right Charlie, Evening Standard, December 8, 2006
- 'Gorgeous George' brush with destiny, East London Advertiser, November 16, 2006
- 'Gorgeous George' sits pretty with Blair and Bush, The Guardian GT Magazine, November 8, 2006
- Portrait of 'George' (Galloway), Free at Last TV, July 2006 (TV)
- Emel Magazine, May 2006, page 97
- IDEA, 2005 (catalogue)
- Fake London Genius // Board Meeting, 2004 (catalogue)
- John Russell Taylor, Drawn from lives, The Times, July 9, 2003
- Brian Sewell, Canvas, brush, paint..., Evening Standard, June 20, 2003
- Bunny Smedley, ART: Still very much alive, thanks, Electric Review, June 25, 2003
- Metro, June 16, 2003
- BP Portrait Award 2003 catalogue, National Portrait Gallery
- Large Magazine, June 2003
- Caroline Roux, Aspects of me, The Guardian Magazine, April 26, 2003
- Large Magazine, March 2003
- No Fun Without U, Author: Jeremy Cooper, 2000 (book)
- Catherine Milner, What pushed Joshua Compston over the edge?, Tatler Magazine, July 2000
- Death of a Curator, Illuminations Production, BBC2, November 1999 (TV)
- Silk and Metal-Morphoses, Evening Standard, March 29, 1999
- Artists of the Colony Room Club, 50th Anniversary Exhibition 1998 (catalogue)
