Major exhibition: Matthew Darbyshire at Manchester Art Gallery

In his largest solo show to date, acclaimed artist Matthew Darbyshire presents An Exhibition for Modern Living. His work is centred around contemporary design, which he unpacks and recycles to prompt the viewer to reconsider the homogenisation of the objects which we surround ourselves with. Taking inspiration from both the everyday consumer culture, and the expansive collections that museums acquire, Darbyshire re-thinks what objects mean to society. In the Oak Effect (2012), an assembled flat pack room in which the artist has placed traditional wooden objects, he has worked alongside Manchester Art Gallery’s curators and conservators to select the objects from the collection that will appear in amongst the cheap, mass-produced room. Having previously shown at the Saatchi Gallery, Miro Foundation, Hayward Gallery, and the Tate Britain (among many others), Darbyshire’s reputation as a leading contemporary British artist is now given the chance to excel in its own right with ten large scale ‘environments’ and new sculptural works, some of which will appear in the gallery’s grand entrance hall.

Fri 25 Sep – Sun 10 Jan, Manchester Art Gallery, Mosley Street, Manchester, M23JL, www.manchesterartgallery.org