Everything must glow – Nicky Wire is having his first solo show

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The Manic Street Preachers have long been one of our artier Rock’n’Roll groups. In the course of their three-decade career, they have twice used work by Jenny Saville on album covers and have written songs inspired by Vincent van Gogh and Willem De Kooning. Now, it seems, bassist and founding member Nicky Wire has decided to take on his influences at their own game.

Wire’s debut solo exhibition, which opened on 14 September at Tenby Museum & Art Gallery, Pembrokeshire, contains works in media that include ‘foil, superglue, gaffa, masking and sellotape, nail varnish, glitter, make-up and of course paint’. ‘The exhibition is a celebration of inspiration,’ Wire tells Wales Online, listing points of reference as diverse as Gerhard Richter, Tracey Emin and Dylan Thomas.

More interestingly, perhaps, Wire sees himself ‘following in a fine tradition of bass playing artists – The Clash’s Paul Simonon, Sonic Youth’s Kim Gordon and Paul McCartney’. What, no Bill Wyman?

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