Chester Tenneson

Lecturer
Fine Art

Chester Tenneson (he/him) is an artist and Lecturer in Fine Art, teaching studio practice into both BA (Hons) Fine Art and BA (Hons) Fine Art & Art History pathways. In addition, he runs a weekly Queer Reading & Practice Group for students at Manchester School of Art, which focusses upon contemporary Queer Fine Art practice and wider cultural theory. The aim of the group is to create a community of support, shared research and representation for Queer students and allies. Weekly sessions include crits, readings, film screenings, Gallery visits and a yearly exhibition opportunity. The group is also provided with links to local and national Queer professional networks via Chester's research.

Chester’s research, via practice, explores the absurdity within the norms of everyday institutional design and authority, examining idiosyncratic moments within commonplace objects and language. He takes prompts from institutional statements, signage, social media, advertising and product design to create interventional text-based works, working within the fields of expanded painting, print, sculpture and performance. His works seek to act as prompts for performance and reframing, playing with transitional moments of movement, calling for the viewer to engage with points of tension/mischief/banality. His position as a transgender man largely informs his practice, looking to the absurdity within the design of the cis-heteronormative world, as an outsider looking in.

Recent exhibition history includes prominent national surveys of Queer art: (Un)Defining Queer, The Whitworth, Manchester; Queer Art(ists) Now, Space Station Sixty-Five, London and WINK WINK, The Whitaker, Rossendale.