Biography

Born in 1979 in Hertfordshire, Gareth Halliday studied Fine Art at Northampton University and graduated in 2000. Soon after completing his degree, Halliday became disillusioned with the commercial art world and took a sabbatical of several years. It was not until 2009 when the artist turned his attention back to image making.

Having collected printed ephemera for over two decades, the artist is drawn to the otherworldly qualities of vintage photography and collage. Halliday utilises found images and a dadaist and surrealist sensibility to form worlds simultaneously possible and impossible. He contrasts the sublime with the terranean, altering perceived reality and creating his own unearthly dreamscapes.

Most recently Halliday produced artwork for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds album Who Built The Moon. Having seen his artwork on the wall of Damon Albarn’s studio, Gallagher purchased two prints and suggested the idea of collaborating on a project. Halliday listened to the album demo repeatedly, constructing a visual world at one with the music.

Halliday: “It was the otherworldly quality of the instrumental arrangements as much as the lyrics, I felt I was creating imagery for a film soundtrack. I wanted the images to be positive, hedonistic, escapist perhaps, like the music, but with a dark undercurrent.”

Several artworks produced for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds by Halliday feature in our ‘A New World Blazing‘ touring exhibition, alongside exclusive photography by Sharon Latham.