Swan Street West by Tim Garner

Swan Street West by Tim Garner
Swan Street West by Tim Garner

In 'Swan Street West', Tim Garner returns to Manchester's beloved Northern Quarter for inspiration. Swan Street is home to epochal music venue Band on the Wall, which is well loved by locals, and described by Elbow's Guy Garvey as the "cornerstone of the city’s musical heritage for over 80 years". Here this iconic street is captured beneath a Garner's signature skies, amidst a myriad of cool greys, pinks, and blues.

In 'Swan Street West', Tim Garner returns to Manchester's beloved Northern Quarter for inspiration. Swan Street is home to iconic music venue Band on the Wall, which is well loved by locals and tourists alike. Swan Street is a culturally and architecturally significant area within the Northern Quarter, and has been captured by Garner with a total air of honesty. In this piece we are immersed in the rhythm of the city, positioned on ground level beneath Garner's signature skies which are imbued with cool greys, pinks, and blues. Although iconic, Garner has portrayed Swan Street as though it could be part of any Northern town - its familiar, its real - it's a prime example of how Garner portrays the 'anti-landmarks' of the city and turns them into works of fine art that resonate with their audience. Garner's works are full of contradictions, and have a distinctive ability to capture both the stillness and movement of a city in a way that gives each work a total sense of life and agency. “You can’t escape the old and the new in any city” There is a distinctive honesty within Garner’s oeuvre – works such as this convey a passing moment in time, a visual commentary on the mundane, everyday moments. Those familiar with Manchester will be aware of how quickly the city can change – Garner’s paintings have a way of bringing this to a standstill, making specific moments permanent on canvas. Garner is known for exploring these different visual avenues and devices through painting, but without being too formulaic - he sees painting as a reflection of what's around us, in a way that's both physical and metaphysical. To capture the physicality of the cityscape, Garner works with a combination of materials such as metals and cement to appropriate the dirt and grit of the Northern city streets, paired with a colour palette of metallics and iridescent paints to imbue texture, light and depth. These works are made using a rigorous process of applying layer upon layer of thinly mixed ground paint onto the surface, taking any time from ten days to three weeks to complete. Through this process, Garner has produced an extraordinary composition which captures a moment of stillness within a city that never stops moving.

Based in his home studio in Stockport, Tim Garner is an artist who captures cityscapes through his own avant-garde lens. Inspired from his time living between Manchester and Paris, Garner works from photography and photo collage as his primary references, taking advantage of their visual immediacy and accuracy. Paint and cement are then used as a way of injecting emotive layers of meaning, forming Garner's distinctive style and flair. Through this process Garner has established his own visual language, which is imbued with character. His works are comfortingly familiar to a Northern audience, whilst enlightening and educating wider audiences. A piece of Mancunian history, this artwork would be a valuable asset for any contemporary art space, collection or home.