Dean Knight’s work probes the insecurities and fragilities revealed in the social, professional, and creative lives of humans. At times poignant, often ludicrous, he homes in on the curious lengths we go to carve out a place for ourselves in the world.

In a roundabout way – moving between abstraction and figuration – Knight’s painting, ceramic, collage, and sculpture uncover a fascination with the human impulse to exert influence, to assert ourselves and make claims for status along the way. He is particularly interested in the performed identities of the male artist, and long-held preconceptions of the gay man. Knight draws out the unnuanced construction of such personae. He identifies recurring materials, attributes, and symbols – such as erect phalli, bow ties, rainbows, and glitter – that together have become a kind of shorthand way of signalling a particular set of beliefs, predilections, and perspectives.

Knight is acutely aware of the art-historical legacies that weigh heavy for an artist (and art technician) living in Cornwall. His answer to this is to undercut all elitist tendencies with mischievous irreverence, and a pick ’n’ mix approach to cultural references. Frank Lloyd Wright-style building blocks, become the support of a dirty washing-up bowl; MDF and air-dry clay masquerade as stone; a cartoonish abstract wave alludes to art-world expectations of work by Cornish artists. In this way, macho high art Modernism is tipped pathetically from its pedestal. Restyled and repackaged, Knight overturns the principles of good taste leaving behind an unapologetically cutified version of art and life, exposing affectation and calling into question the cult of authenticity.