Gary McLeod
Fine Arts, United Kingdom
 
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Brief Summary
Practice:

When one leaves what they consider “home”, they are at first unfamiliar with the new surroundings, often intent upon adjusting and making a new “home” for themselves. At the same time, others see the new arrival as ugly, different from their surroundings, until they become accustomed to the presence of the new person. Each time one leaves their perceived “home” they go through the same process. Familiarity is the measuring rod of aesthetics. Creativity brews in the grey zones between what is familiar and what is unfamiliar. It stems from the process of making sense of one’s surroundings: the transition from noise to information.

Digital images flood our Facebook pages, our websites, our computers, and our mobile phones. But they are merely bits of the bigger picture. Perception is built from multiple 0.3 second pieces of what we see. Combine this with the way in which we transform noise into information, and eventually, our ways of constructing images have to follow suite. David Hockney recognized this, as did Mark Klett.

McLeod's photographic practice derives from playing against the camera, playing against its established program of seeing, composing, clicking and reviewing; by doing something it did not expect: bringing together a lens from the past and a camera of the present, two elements never designed to be anywhere near each other. His subject have all been consumed by this “hybrid” camera, piece by piece during a period of sometimes up to one hour, after which, they are then reconstructed. Each final composition is in truth a visualization of how the subjects are perceived across many moments of time. The moments, however, are just the ones that do not escape the camera’s clutches. There are of course, still many moments in between that manage to slip away.

Bio:

Gary McLeod is an artist who is based in Japan and the UK. His work has been exhibited predominately at venues in Japan including Contemporary Art Space Osaka; Zuishoji Art Space, Tokyo; and the Foreign Correspondents Club, Tokyo. In 2006, he received a Masters Preparation award from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK for his visual research of the British scientific vessel HMS Challenger’s visit to Japan in 1875. Since then, he has continued to center his research on the photographs taken throughout Challenger’s voyage. He has given public lectures at venues including the National Museum of Nature and Science in Tokyo, the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, and the Natural History Museum in London where collections of his photographs are also housed in the Murray Library. He has lectured at institutions in India and the UK including Loughborough University School of Arts and Canterbury Christ Church University. 
Awards and Recognition
Solo Exhibitions:

2011 Pieces, Gallery Art Space Portsmouth, UK
2010 SNS Challenger, Window, University of Auckland, NZ
2009 Privilege, Zuishoji Art Projects, Tokyo
2009 Privilege, Foreign Correspondents Club, Tokyo
2009 Privilege, Contemporary Art Space Osaka, Osaka
2008 Habit: part two, Camberwell College of Arts, London
2008 Habit: part one, Gallery HOT, Osaka
2007 Osaka 2.0, SoHo Art Gallery Café, Osaka
2007 All Night Long in Birr, Birr Theatre & Arts Centre, Eire
2007 The Challenger Photographs, Gallery HOT, Osaka
2007 All Night Long in Monaghan, Market House, Eire
2006 Escalate, Contemporary Art Space Osaka, Osaka
2006 Temporary Lights, Yahoo BB Internet Café, Kyoto
2006 GO, Gallery HOT, Osaka
2005 Guiding Lights, Early Gallery, Osaka
2004 Wait for the Light to Change, Fukugan + gallery, Osaka

Group Exhibitions:

2012 Research in Progress: pushing boundaries and practices, London
2011 Drove, Raffles Millennium International, Ahmedabad
2009 Wandsworth Artist Open House 2009, London
2009 Transnational Art, Osaka Contemporary Art Centre
2008 Wandsworth Artist Open House 2008, London
2008 Art Salad, SoHo Art Gallery Café, Osaka
2007 Eat the Weak, Osaka, Japan
2005 Towers & Icons, Artists’ Harbour Gallery, Portsmouth
2002 LAND, Artsway, Hampshire, UK
2001 Cotswolds Int. Film & Video Fest, Stroud

Collections and Awards:

Mineralogy Library, Natural History Museum, London
Anthropology Library, Natural History Museum, London
2006-2008 AHRC Masters Preparation Award

Professional Engagements:

09/2012 Discussion Paper at Designs on E-learning 2012 conference, University of the Arts, London, UK
09/2012 Digital Poster at Challenger Conference 2012, University of East Anglia, UK
08/2011 Creator and Emcee of “Hare Talks”, Raffles Millennium International, Ahmedabad
11/2010 Student lecture, London College of Communication, UK
09/2010 Poster, Challenger Conference 2010, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK
03/2010 Public lecture, JALT Kyoto Chapter, Kyoto, Japan
02/2010 Public lecture, National Museum of Nature & Science, Tokyo, Japan
01/2010 Public lecture, Pecha-Kucha, Vol.68 Tokyo, Japan
03/2009 Student lecture, Wimbledon College of Art, London, UK
03/2009 Public lecture, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK
03/2009 Public webcast interview, Nature Live @ Natural History Museum, London, UK
09/2008 Public lecture, AHRC, Bristol, UK
09/2008 Student lecture, Fareham College, UK
04/2008 Public lecture, Natural History Museum, London, UK 
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