Conor Rogers: Renegade

About

Rogers reclaims derogatory concepts and transforms them into a symbol of defiance and strength. Within his approach to the gallery exchange, Conors has created a site-specific work that explores the local history and landscape of its Shieldfield estate and community.

Rogers defies conventional narratives through selected works that prioritise council estates, domestic spaces, and communities that are often misunderstood. Rogers transforms the purpose of items from everyday life, such as betting slips, rizla paper, and drug baggies. His site-responsive work to Shieldfield, the council estate where Slugtown Gallery is located, explores the gallery’s history and its previous purposes. One of the uses of the space was a Pharmacy, a local place of healing for the community. The artwork is painted directly onto a pharmacy leaflet to create a dialogue between the material and the depicted image to emphasise the significance of place, history and the symbolism of healing in working-class environments.

In combining image and object Rogers endeavors to expose the reality of life in Britain. The artworks within the exhibition are by-products of deep personal connections formed from lived experience, memory, and conversation. They explore social commentary, cultural identities, class dynamics, stereotypes, and our sense of self. Rogers’ innovative approach in Renegade not only allows for the exploration of a new city but also fosters new connections and establishes new meanings. By addressing stereotypes that exist within London, Newcastle and Sheffield, the exhibition probes the differences, similarities, and insecurities of contemporary British society. 

Rogers graduated from Sheffield Hallm Unviersity in 2014 and was selected for the Bloomberg New Contemporaries in 2015, exhibited at Primary Gallery, Nottingham and the ICA, London. In 2018 Rogers represented Great Britain at the Mediterranea 18 biennale in Tirana, Albania. In 2019 Conor was named as the 1st Prize winner of the UK Young Artist of the Year Award held at the Saatchi Gallery, London. He became the recipient of the 2024 March Selection of the DYCPGrant provided by Arts Council England. Selected group exhibitions include Collyer Bristow Gallery, London (2020); Holden Gallery Manchester (2021); OOF Gallery, London (2021). In 2019 he was selected for the Freelands Foundation programme at Site Gallery, Sheffield resulting in his debut solo exhibition ‘Manor Boy’ Yorkshire Artspace, Sheffield (2021). In 2022 he was commissioned as the leading artist for the National Portrait Galleries ‘Creative Connections’ project to create an exhibition of socially engaged portraiture. Rogers work is held in The Arts Council Collection.