LONDON.- United by a shared commitment to amplifying the work and voices of emerging artists, Castlefield Gallery and Pipeline's partnership is a rare platform that connects regional practice to national visibility. The collaboration provides an exclusive opportunity for Castlefield Gallery Associates - an artist-development membership scheme - to not only show work at both galleries in Manchester and London, but to also coincide with London Gallery Weekend.

Disc Unknown brings together O’Rourke’s DVD-case paintings with larger mixed-media works, wall-based and freestanding paintings which will draw viewers through a landscape of repeated motifs, images, text and materials.

O’Rourke’s paintings are often inspired by happenstance, such as an overheard conversation, something seen from a bus window or a found object. Living in Manchester has shaped his experience of urban environments, leading him to use materials and motifs that echo urbanisation, labour, and thresholds between public and private space. Repurposing found objects in his work is a response to a world already full of surplus materials. These materials also hold tensions between the handmade and mass-produced, the intimate and the public.

In O’Rourke’s paintings text operates as both image and language. Text appears as painted words, signage or fragments drawn from advertising and mass media. Text will be a recurring and connective element across both exhibitions at Pipeline and Castlefield Gallery.

Joe O’Rourke shares: “This is an exciting opportunity to restage my work across two distinct settings, testing how painting can circulate between scales, spaces, and audiences, shifting between intimacy and immersion, image and environment.”

Tatiana Cheneviere, Founder of Pipeline, shares: “Joe thinks about painting as an environment rather than a single image. This collaboration with Castlefield Gallery creates a compelling framework for that idea to unfold across two distinct spaces and audiences. For Pipeline, the project reflects an important commitment to working beyond London and building meaningful exchanges between artists, institutions and audiences across the UK.”

Matthew Pendergast, Head of Programme, Castlefield Gallery, shares: “I’m really excited to see how Joe’s expanded painting practice will work across the two exhibition venues. At Castlefield Gallery we will get to grapple with the building's unique architecture and large street facing windows which will give us some interesting opportunities to think about how we restage interactions between Joe’s works, passersby and visitors to the gallery.”