For Nigel Walker's last exhibition at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery, he cycled around his home city of Salford as a tourist and depicted the cultural identity of his fellow locals. Now, he's taken his bike around Eastern Europe creating some stunning canvases of life away from Eastern Salford.
"Following the exhibition I came across lots of Polish people" Nigel explains "I wanted to see what it was like where they come from and what they left behind."
On his journey, Nigel went to many of the significant destinations but looked at the lives of everyday people away from the tourist crowds..."In Slovakia I went into the tourist office and they told me I've got to see this and that but I told them that I want to see where people live" he recalls "So I would go round on my own and people would invite me into their houses. When I went back to the tourist office and told them they said 'We've never even been there!'"
Nigel reels off some of the sights he saw and how they relate in the paintings...
For the Berlin canvas, "You can see what was the old Eastern European Wall in Magdeburg and I have shown it beautiful in Germany and on the other side it is starting to be broken."
From the Zagan death camp, upon which the The Great Escape was based, he included poppies as a reference to all the people who died during the war. There is also a painting of Auschwitz... "That was the biggest surprise of the whole trip, they've turned it into a tourist park. They have all these huts where you filter through to buy books. It's a money making machine and it's immaculate."
There are a number of references to communism in his `broken dreams' painting of Slovakia, while Krakow sees the contrast between rich and poor... "It is like how Monte Carlo is to the rest of France. It just stands alone and everything is decorated like a wedding but when you go round the back of the buildings it is still dilapidated."
The poorest place Nigel visited was Ukraine, while Poland was also a shock..."It had very beautiful towns and cities but they were devoid of people" he argues "When I spoke to anyone they said 'Our young people need to stop leaving us'. So I put them on a bus."
Nigel himself was on his bike for the four thousand mile trip, which took six months from April last year... "As a cyclist you are not going on the road, you are travelling through nature so you get that sense of the landscape" he explains.
The results are paintings that have a wonderful honesty about them and plenty to say. A modern and graphic take on Eastern European life, they give a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the people he met on his journey.
The stunning canvases can only enhance, yet again, the growing reputation of Nigel Walker, who recently sold a painting depicting Manchester and Salford people for £5,000.
* To contact Nigel Walker about exhibiting or purchasing his work email Nigelwalker2@hotmail.co.uk
* See previous Salford Star article on Nigel Walker - Stunning Salford as it's never been seen - click here
Words and photos by Steven Speed
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
(3).jpeg)
.png)
(1).JPG)
