I am an artist living in Newcastle upon Tyne, originally from West Yorkshire. I cut my teeth as a musician in the DIY scene, as part of The Middle Ones and EXPENSIVE, as well as lending some vocals and drums to Trust Fund and more recently SUMMER. I used to put on gigs in Norwich under the name Something Good.

I work in video, performance, text, and installation. My conceptual focus is the language of sovereignty, and how this relates to my recently diagnosed AD/HD. The elusive promise of self-governance present in (often opposing) political ideology, medical diagnosis, and new age philosophy, and the inherent contradiction of joining a cause or community to enable self-actualisation.

In January 2021 I began a practice-based PhD studentship at Northumbria University under the supervision of Christine Borland and Clark Lawlor, and became part of the Cultural Negotiation of Science, a fine art research group at Northumbria. My working title is The nominally sovereign body: A practice-based exploration of the language of self-governance through the prism of ADHD.

In 2021-22 I began working with Erika Leaman on The Wardrobe - a clothing resource for the trans, non-binary and genderqueer community in the North East, and a safe space for exploring gender expression. The project is based at The NewBridge Project.

To progress my research I also started working with Jo Hauge in 2022 to host Making Time - an online space for neurodivergent artists, writers and researchers that meets once a week. The project is supported by Northumbria and BALTIC.

~

“Sovereignty, after all, is a fantasy misrecognised as an objective state: an aspirational position of personal and institutional self-legitimating performativity and an affective sense of control in relation to the fantasy of that position’s offer of security and efficacy.”
— Lauren Berlant, Cruel Optimism

“All I ever really want to know is how other people are making it through life - where do they put their body, hour by hour, and how do they cope inside of it.”
— Miranda July, It Chooses You

“Aidan realizes, obscurely, that a lot depends now on Pauline’s having enjoyed the fireworks—that if she didn’t enjoy them, if she thought they were boring, not only will he no longer like her but he will no longer have enjoyed them either, in retrospect, and something good will be dead.“
— Sally Rooney, Color and Light

“The soft humidity of the evening, so pleasant to walk about in earlier, had turned to rain. The strolling tourists had melted away. One or two people hurried by under umbrellas. This is what the inhabitants who live here see, he thought. This is the true life. Empty streets by night, the dank stillness of a stagnant canal beneath shuttered houses. The rest is a bright facade put on for show, glittering by sunlight.”
— Daphne du Maurier, Don’t Look Now

“I think it’s really important to know that all of the so-called theory of philosophy, comes out of the urgencies felt by the human being, being alive. A lot of the liberatory theories: queer theory and feminist theory and critical race theory, they’re about… they couldn’t be more about life.”
— Maggie Nelson on KCRW Bookworm

“If you’re in pursuit of the kinds of things that I’m in pursuit of, y’know, your self is trash, it’s nothing, it’s just material, it’s like the wood going into the fire.”
— Rachel Cusk on One to One

CONTACT

email: grace.e.m.denton@northumbria.ac.uk

Other missives and work can be found on twitter, instagram, vimeo, tumblr, soundcloud, linkedin and more historically, flickr.

CV

b.1988, Dewsbury

EXHIBITIONS & EVENTS

Nominally Sovereign [event and film launch] BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, 26 July 2023

Taking Stock [residency and public events] Gallery North, Northumbria University, 5 - 17 December 2022

[textile installation] as part of Saltaire Arts Trail SHOWCASE, Saltaire, West Yorkshire, 30 Apr - 2 May 2022

The Wind Down [workshop] for the new Collective Studio, The NewBridge Project, Newcastle, October 2021

Artist talk at MIMA School of Art & Design, Teesside University, Middlesbrough, Feb 2020

Flirting [performance + curation of screening] Unintimacy curated with Caitlin Merrett-King @ NewBridge Newcastle, 26 April 2019

various works [various media] #30works30days by 12øcollective @ www.thirty.works, April 2019

Protection as Weapon [sculpture] TOT-TOT-TOTALALAZOLA! by TOTALLER, The NewBridge Project: Gateshead, Jan 2019

union jack emoji [video, performance] Kathryn Elkin Seminar Day @ BALTIC 39, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1 Dec 2018

Baby, I’m Nervous [video, sculpture] Halfway to Somewhere @ NewBridge Gateshead, 28 Sept-28 Oct 2018

Protects [performance] SEMBLANCE by Mani Kambo @ System Gallery, 17 July 2018

The Nuclear Family [sculpture] SPLINTER @ Graduate Studio Northumbria, 14 - 30 June 2018

She put the great in Great Britain [video] Six of One and Half a Dozen of the Other @ The Royal Standard, 13 Apr 2018
and @ The NewBridge Project, 18 Apr 2018

In the place where you worked / there were posters that said [painting] @ Goldtapped, 15 Dec 2017 - 4 Jan 2018

Relax with Irene [performance] feeling yr thoughts @ Culture Lab, 24 Nov 2017

Something Good [installation, screening] an OUTPOST off-site event @ Gildengate House, Norwich,  21 Oct 2017

Relax with Irene [performance] FIX17 @ Catalyst Arts, Belfast, 5 - 8 Oct 2017

The Mind is the Limit, Strive for Success & Feed Your Focus [video] WOAH @ Division of Labour, London, 24 Aug - 9 Sept 2017

Shiny Happy People [sculpture] Dishwasher Safe @ System Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne, 10 Aug - 11 Sept 2017

In the telling [performance] (film) Studio is Sudden @ The Northern Charter, Newcastle upon Tyne, 25 July 2017

Folly [sculpture, video] I Remember Most What Never Happened @ BALTIC 39, Newcastle upon Tyne, 31 May - 18 June 2017

Decorum [sculpture] SLOWING INTO FORM @ Vane, Newcastle upon Tyne, 15 - 25 Feb 2017

To rub out or remove [performance] INHABIT by Neon Arts @ Cockshaw Burn, Hexham, 21 Feb 2017

Playing Myself in response to The Bodyssey Odyssey by Pester & Rossi @ BALTIC 39, Newcastle upon Tyne, 8 - 11 Dec 2016

(Short Pause) [video] This Is It, Isn't It? @ WORKPLACE, Gateshead, 18 Nov - 3 Dec 2016

Both Things Are True [video, music] collaboration with Craig Pollard @ Coackwerks, Brighton, 12 Nov 2016
and @ NewBridge Books, Newcastle upon Tyne, 7 Oct 2016

Too Big To Go Backwards [video, sculpture] Living Room @ BALTIC 39, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1 - 19 Jun 2016

Sixty Five [performance] Flare 2 @ Gallery North, Newcastle upon Tyne, 14 May 2016

All-Mouth [sculpture, performance] You Know The Rules @ BALTIC 39, Newcastle upon Tyne, 22 - 24 Jan 2016

Likeness [sculpture] RE:fold @ National Taiwan University of Arts, Taiwan, 30 Nov - 6 Dec 2015

the female, the uncanny [installation, video, photographic prints] Going Going Gone @ Leeds College of Art, Leeds, 13 - 18 June 2015

Still Lifes [photographic prints] solo exhibition @ Cafe Kino, Bristol, 17-27 Jan 2015

PERFORMER CREDITS

Blanky Worty Terror & Bliss by Harriet Plewis. [reading, movement] ArtHouses @ Whitley Bay, Aug 2019

Islanders by Giles Bailey, Jamie Hammill, Nellie Saunby & Sophie Soobramanien. [music improv] Festival of the Not @ Star and Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne, Jan 2019

QUEEN by Kathryn Elkin. [part of video shoot + launch event] BALTIC 39, Newcastle upon Tyne, Dec 2018

Reading Room: Meeting the Universe Halfway by Harriet Plewis. [reading, movement, song] Sunderland, Sept 2017

PAPERFORMANCE by Joanna Hutton. [paper, performance] Paper Studio Northumbria, Feb 2016

Pley by Cara Tolmie. [video] Picture This, April 2013

My Robot Heart by Molly Naylor. [music for touring show] Show and Tell, 2012-13

All The Stories by Dora Garcia. [reading] Spike Island, Sept 2011

Representing Ruaidhri (Je vous Présente Ruaidhri) by Ruaidhri Ryan. [video] We Are Disposable, Mar 2011

PUBLICATIONS

Digital

Holding Our Nerves: Experiments in Dispersed Collective Silence, Waking Sleep and Autotheoretical Confession, [article] from a Special Issue of Arts Journal on Autotheory in Contemporary Visual Arts Practice co-edited by Cat Auburn and Prof Katherine Baxter, Aug 2022

Expanded Interiors: Re-Staged, Hatton Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne [review] Corridor8, Aug 2021

CHAIN/MAIL Issue 1: North East, edited by Lesley Guy with additional contributions from Rene Francis-McBrearty and cover artwork by Uma Breakdown. Corridor8, Sept 2020

Trojan Horse / Rainbow Flag, Star & Shadow Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne [review] Corridor8, Jun 2019

hu - Hungarian Touring Exhibition, Abject Gallery, Newcastle upon Tyne [review] Corridor8, Feb 2019

Retrospective Age [comment] The Double Negative, on the phenomenon of fame amongst the old(er) artist, Jan 2019

Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2018, Berwick upon Tweed [review] Corridor8, Nov 2018

Dan Holdsworth: Continuous Topography, NGCA, Sunderland [review] Corridor8, Nov 2018

We Are Where We Are, BALTIC 39, Newcastle upon Tyne [review] Corridor 8, Sept 2018

Idea of North, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead [review] Corridor8, Jun 2018

Physical

collaborative image and text with Cherry Styles in SPAM SPREADS #1, edited by Sarah Bouttell, Katharine Welsh, Okocha Obasi, published in 2020 by BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art as a reimagining of the lockdown year’s cancelled self-publishing artist market (view online)

photo collage in Lettuce Bee #1 an A4 zine-style anthology, edited by Simon Moreton and Ali Bamford, Aug 2019 (more info)

Kitchen Synch an A4, colour speed-zine by Cherry Styles and Grace Denton for the BALTIC self-publishing artists market 2018. Synchronise Witches Press, Apr 2018

Both Things Are True a zine by Grace Denton and Craig Pollard, Oct 2016 (buy)

image and text in GUT FLORA: a Chapess zine Collection by Cherry Styles, Synchronise Witches Press, Oct 2016

image and text in Tender Bodies by Lauren Vevers, Papaya Press, Jun 2016 (buy)

Our Parents a collection of art and writing about the people who brought us up. Compiled by Grace Denton, Often and Mistakes, Dec 2014

image and text in Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, Leanne Shapton and 639 others, Penguin, Sept 2014 (more info)

image and text in The Chapess #4 by Cherry Styles, Synchronise Witches Press, Aug 2014 (buy)

Still Lifes a photo book by Grace Denton, Jan 2014 (buy)

AWARDS & EDUCATION

RDF Studentship for practice-based PhD in Fine Art, BxNU Institute, Northumbria University, Jan 2021 - Dec 2024

BFMAF LUX Project Boot Camp, Berwick, Sept 2019

BALTIC Bothy Residency, Sweeney's Bothy, Isle of Eigg, Sept 2019

The Collective Studio, The NewBridge Project, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sept 2017-18

Graduate Studio Northumbria, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, Sept 2017-18

Master of Fine Art, BxNU Institute (BALTIC x Northumbria University), Distinction, July 2017

BALTIC Scholarship, September 2015

Access to Higher Education in Art & Design, Leeds College of Art, Distinction, July 2015

Spike Associates, Spike Island, Bristol, 2011-14

Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, University of East Anglia, 2:1, July 2009