Manchester School of Art alumni exhibit new work at HOME

Two Manchester School of Art alumni are currently presenting new work at HOME Manchester, in a pair of exhibitions that bring together distinct practices through shared themes of material, process and the body.

Nicola Ellis presents ‘Exercises in Knowing’, while Gabriel Kidd presents ‘I found the giant and he was dead’. Installed as a double solo presentation, the exhibitions create a dialogue between the two artists’ approaches, opening up space for reflection across different viewpoints and lived experiences.

Ellis’s exhibition, ‘Exercises in Knowing’, continues her ongoing collaboration with Ritherdon & Co Ltd, a steel enclosure manufacturer based in Darwen, Lancashire, bringing industrial processes into dialogue with sculptural practice.

Speaking about the exhibition, Ellis said:

“The relationships I formed with teaching staff and peers during my MA at Manchester School of Art have continued to be important to my professional practice since graduating in 2011; they have provided support, motivation, and a shared work ethic.

‘Exercises in Knowing’  presents three new bodies of work developed through my ongoing relationship with Ritherdon & Co Ltd, a steel enclosure manufacturer in Darwen, Lancashire. This collaboration has evolved since an Art in Manufacturing residency in 2018. I’m grateful for the opportunity to bring work developed within this industrial context into the gallery and to present it alongside Gabriel Kidd’s exhibition. The pairing opens up a shared space to reflect on the body, fragility, and labour from different viewpoints and lived experiences.”

Kidd’s exhibition, ‘I found the giant and he was dead’, is an immersive installation that brings together sculpture, sound and storytelling, exploring landscape, memory and material.

Reflecting on the exhibition, Kidd said:

“‘I found the giant and he was dead’ holds some complicated feelings now that it’s made and installed. There’s a lot I love and a lot I would do differently. The best part of a show is always the making of it, that space where ideas can still shift and mutate, which I tried to carry through into the installation.

I’m proud of how it came together. It feels like an extension of the work I developed during my MFA at the Slade, and also a reflection on my time living in Manchester. The exhibition brings together ideas, stories and feelings that have been developing over the best part of a decade.

There’s a lot of failure in the work, physical and emotional, and that’s really important to me. I hope the show captures something of the horror and beauty of that experience. It feels special to return for my first institutional show and make something like a love letter to a remembered version of the North and Saddleworth Moor.”

On their time at Manchester School of Art, Kidd said:

“Manchester School of Art was the core of some of the biggest shifts in my life really. I started there on the foundation diploma straight after sixth form, met some of the dearest people in my life who I’ll carry with me forever, and started to develop a language to approach, discuss and think about art making.

To be honest, I spent a lot of the early years figuring things out, but the Covid pandemic interrupted the course halfway through my second year and the periods of lockdown ended up being a turning point for my practice. When we came back for final year, I was spending most of my time in the studios, experimenting, making and remaking. That way of working, following ideas as far as they can go, is something I’m still working through now.

My tutors were really key in nudging and supporting the direction I was taking things. I felt challenged in constructive ways, and some of those conversations are still ringing around in my head as I make now.

It was also just a really buzzy place to be. Students from so many different disciplines moving around the building gave it a lot of energy, and that’s something that’s stayed with me.”

Together, the exhibitions highlight the breadth of practices emerging from Manchester School of Art, and the ways in which alumni continue to develop ambitious and thoughtful approaches to making.

Both exhibitions are now open at HOME Manchester and run until May 17th. 

Find out more here: https://homemcr.org/theme/spring-2026-exhibitions-md7x