Building on Michael Petry's book, The Art of Not Making: the new artist/artisan relationship, this exhibition explores some of the different factors that motivate artists to use assistants or make outsourcing part of their practice today.

The Fabricated Object

Building on Michael Petry's book, The Art of Not Making: the new artist/artisan relationship, this exhibition explores some of the different factors that motivate artists to use assistants or make outsourcing part of their practice today.

Scheduled to coincide with the College&rsquo;s 175th anniversary, the exhibition will present three centuries of work by leading artists and designers who either taught or studied at the RCA. Throughout the exhibition, works of design, fine and applied art will be grouped without regard to chronology. It will be staged in the Henry Moore, Upper Gulbenkian, and Entrance Galleries of the Royal College of Art&rsquo;s Darwin Building in Kensington, comprising 700 square metres. The exhibition will be designed by Casson Mann who, of course, have a long track record of working in London&rsquo;s National Museums and Galleries in the UK and abroad.The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue comprising a 10,000-word overview of the College&rsquo;s history by Fiona MacCarthy; 6 x 3,000-word essays by Andrew Wilson (who will be writing about the YBAs and the RCA), Robert Upstone, Jane Pavitt, Glenn Adamson and myself, and &ldquo;living histories&rdquo; of alumni ranging from Bridget Riley to Ridley Scott, Richard Wentworth and Tracey Emin.

The Perfect Place to Grow: 175 Years of the Royal College of Art

Scheduled to coincide with the College’s 175th anniversary, the exhibition will present three centuries of work by leading artists and designers who either taught or studied at the RCA. Throughout the exhibition, works of design, fine and applied art will be grouped without regard to chronology. It will be staged in the Henry Moore, Upper Gulbenkian, and Entrance Galleries of the Royal College of Art’s Darwin Building in Kensington, comprising 700 square metres.

Presented by Paul Stolper Gallery, Transit Disaster was a series of 20 unique silkscreen prints by Turk, depicting two repeated images of a single transit van. Each printed in a different colour the installation mimics Warhol’s group of Shadow paintings (1979) with its hypnotic sequence of colour and image.

Just as Warhol’s car crash paintings from his ‘Death and Disaster’ series (1962 – 1963) anesthetised violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so to do Turk’s ‘Transit Disaster’ series become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and alluring, as the deformed metal of the crashes becomes textures, patterns and shapes.

However, the series is more than simply a contemporary re-cycling of Warhol’s paintings, by replacing the American car with an image of a transit van, a symbol of a certain burnt-out, both literally and symbolically, working class Britain, Turk incorporates ideas of social decline into Warhol’s glamorous oeuvre.

transit disaster gif

Presented by Paul Stolper Gallery, Transit Disaster was a series of 20 unique silkscreen prints by Turk, depicting two repeated images of a single transit van. Each printed in a different colour the installation mimics Warhol’s group of Shadow paintings (1979) with its hypnotic sequence of colour and image.

Transit Disaster

Secretive, transgressive, tight, crisp, bitter, sustaining and sweet, apples run through our culture like a small, firm promise in our hands. Both simply domestic and densely resonant, the apple has inspired numberless artists and writers. It remains a symbol, not only of sin and The Fall, but also of knowledge, life, love and hope. Apples may remind us of childhood, spices, baking, exciting thefts. They may confront us in sterile supermarket displays, or light our autumn hedgerows. They may breathe sweetness in our houses and please our mouths. Their names: Broxwood Foxwhelp, D&rsquo;Arcy Spice, Keswick Codlin, Court Pendu Plat, Hubbardston&rsquo;s Nonesuch make poetry without poets. Apples glow in still lives, tempt in advertisements and hover between Eve and Adam like a threat, a joy, a naked pleasure.And apples have history. They travel with conquerors, they change in changed lands, they have revealed the universe, they blossom surprisingly and intoxicate. Korbinian Aigner, know as The Apple Priest, was an outspoken critic of Hitler&rsquo;s rise to power. He was deprived of his liberty for almost six years and came close to death in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Transferred to Dachau, Aigner was able to work in &ldquo;the plantation&rdquo; and there pursued his love of apples and orchards. Determined to create in the midst of destruction, he bred four new varieties of apple: KZ1, KZ2, KZ3 and KZ4. (KZ was the code used to designate a concentration camp.) KZ3, his most popular creation has now been renamed the Korbinian Apple, in his honour.Remembering both paradise and the inferno and remembering that Cezanne once vowed to astonish Paris with an apple, Large Glass has asked artists and thinkers to consider the apple, its narratives, meanings and beauties. The results are here: delights for the eye and ear: drawings, paintings, objects, sounds &ndash; one part of a continuing harvest.AL KennedyList of Participants Edwina Ashton, David Austen, Bobby Baker, David Batchelor, Louise Cattrell, Hannah Collins, Michael Craig-Martin, Tristano di Robilant, Annie Freud, Martino Gamper &amp; Francis Upritchard, Helena Goldwater, David Harker, Fergus Henderson, Craigie Horsfield, Dan Knight, Christian Marclay, Connolly &amp; McLaren, Jeff McMillan, Jeremy Millar, Claes Oldenburg &amp; Coosje van Bruggen, Kathy Prendergast, Deborah Saunt, Fiona Shaw, Cherry Smyth, Gavin Turk, Jane Wentworth, Ian Whitfield, Alison Wilding and Duncan Wooldridge.

With An Apple I Will Astonish

Secretive, transgressive, tight, crisp, bitter, sustaining and sweet, apples run through our culture like a small, firm promise in our hands. Both simply domestic and densely resonant, the apple has inspired numberless artists and writers. It remains a symbol, not only of sin and The Fall, but also of knowledge, life, love and hope. Apples may remind us of childhood, spices, baking, exciting thefts. They may confront us in sterile supermarket displays, or light our autumn hedgerows. They may breathe sweetness in our houses and please our mouths.

Galerist opened the 2012-2013 exhibition season in its Tepebaşı gallery with a survey of Gavin Turk’s works from a seven year period. The artist was unable to resist the conflation of his name with the possessive cultural label, ‘Turk’, when titling his first solo show in Istanbul.

The title of the show played with conventions of simply but ostentatiously naming exhibitions after the artist. The naming of a show in this way, through twisted repetition, alludes to the way that an artist's name can become a kind of brand which, in this case, is both a national issue and a personal one.

The show invariably touched on themes of art history, authorship, identity and authenticity, with his ‘GT Eggs’ series paying tribute to Warhol’s acrylic on canvas, ‘Egg paintings’. Similarly, the silkscreen series, ‘Turk Love’, refered to American artist Robert Indiana (1928).

The exhibition also included the sculptural bronze ‘Handle’ (2011); the neon glass ‘Observing Eye’ (2011), and bronze statue, ‘Refuse’ (2001). Three series of acrylics on canvas titled ‘Eye’ were also presented to audiences. 

TÜRK concludes with the video installation, ‘Mechanical Turk’ (2006), based upon the 18th Century automaton that was alleged to be able to play chess. In the work, Gavin Turk replaces the inanimate Ottoman figure and contributes to the discussions about identity and content in today’s conditions.

TÜRK

Galerist opened the 2012-2013 exhibition season in its Tepebaşı gallery with a survey of Gavin Turk’s works from a seven year period. The artist was unable to resist the conflation of his name with the possessive cultural label, ‘Turk’, when titling his first solo show in Istanbul.

In 2012 Patricia Low Contemporary presented a solo exhibition of Gavin Turk’s work. 

Superimposing his own identity and brand onto famous celebrities and associated art legends, Gavin Turk’s self-portraits play a game of subterfuge with authorship and mythology. In works from his Elvis series, Turk humorously declares himself heir to the titles of King of Rock and Pop, striking the pose of Warhol’s Double Elvis.

Turk’s process of making is intensely performative, replicating in detail both the media and production methods used in Warhol’s original iconic screen print. Critically levelling the 20th century’s optimistic capitalism in a single act of hostile takeover, Turk downsizes and expropriates its heroes: abated to its most recognisable&nbsp;parts – face and gun details –Turk re-constructs the image as it exists in popular consciousness, insinuating himself (as Turk, as anyone, as everyone) at the core.

Gavin Turk

In 2012 Patricia Low Contemporary presented a solo exhibition of Gavin Turk’s work.

To celebrate the opening of a new and distinctive contemporary art gallery in York&rsquo;s city centre, Lotte Inch Gallery will be holding a thought provoking exhibition of works which will address the intrinsic beauty that lies hidden beneath everyday objects and thought processes. With a collection of work from London based artist Gavin Turk, alongside the likes of Peter Blake, Paula Rego and Rachel Whiteread for The House of Fairy Tales, the show will mark a new course for the development of York&rsquo;s art and cultural scene.

Taken for Granted

To celebrate the opening of a new and distinctive contemporary art gallery in York’s city centre, Lotte Inch Gallery will be holding a thought provoking exhibition of works which will address the intrinsic beauty that lies hidden beneath everyday objects and thought processes. With a collection of work from London based artist Gavin Turk, alongside the likes of Peter Blake, Paula Rego and Rachel Whiteread for The House of Fairy Tales, the show will mark a new course for the development of York’s art and cultural scene.

“From my close contact with artists and chess players I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.” Marcel Duchamp, 1952.

The Art of Chess brings together 16 chess sets designed by some of the world’s leading contemporary artists in celebration of the ‘game of kings’ and its continued relevance to the creative arts.

These specially commissioned chess sets have been created by: Maurizio Cattelan, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Oliver Clegg, Tracey Emin, Tom Friedman, Paul Fryer, Damien Hirst, Barbara Kruger, Yayoi Kusama, Paul McCarthy, Alastair Mackie, Tim Noble and Sue Webster, Matthew Ronay,Tunga, Gavin Turk and Rachel Whiteread. Each set is individually crafted in a wide variety of different materials including wood, porcelain, glass, amber and silver. 
This exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery will be the first time that all 16 chess sets are displayed together and it will also be the first public showing of a new commission by British artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster. Famous for their shadow sculptures, the artists have taken the opportunity to return to their on-going fascination with dead animals and have created a woodland chess set complete with hand carved tree stump with bronze chess pieces inspired by the artists’ collection of mummified animals - found on their farm in Gloucestershire - squirrels take the roles of King and Queen and frogs act as Pawns.

The game of Chess is believed to have originated in the 7the century in India and no other game in history has been so widely reflected in art and literature. Chess remains an intriguing and complex subject for these contemporary artists, who have chosen to create outstanding works of art, each infused with their individual style.

For example, Rachel Whiteread pursued her love of dollhouses when creating her game from miniature furniture. Tom Friedman’schess set is equally intricate and playful, presenting a mini-retrospective of the artist’s best-known works. Barbara Kruger has created the first ever talking chess set with each piece specially programmed to either ask a question or make a statement when moved. The set by Damien Hirst has glass and silver casts of medicine bottles that act as chess pieces, while the American artist Paul McCarthy, a keen chess player, has made his set from random objects found in his own kitchen such as a coffee grinder and a ketchup bottle serving as Rooks.

The Art of Chess began life with five sets commissioned by RS&amp;A and exhibited at Somerset House in 2003. Since then the exhibition has grown in size and toured the world showing in leading museums and galleries in the USA, Russian Federation, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Czech Republic, Australia and Switzerland.

This unique exhibition demonstrates that the game has lost none of its inspirational power in the 21st century and continues to provide an intriguing starting point for artistic expression centuries after the game was invented.

The Saatchi Gallery with RS&amp;A, in association with HUGO BOSS, will be presenting The Art of Chess from 8th September - 3rd October 2012.

The Art of Chess

“From my close contact with artists and chess players I have come to the personal conclusion that while all artists are not chess players, all chess players are artists.” Marcel Duchamp, 1952. The Art of Chess brings together 16 chess sets designed by some of the world’s leading contemporary artists in celebration of the ‘game of kings’ and its continued relevance to the creative arts.

The Art of Chess (Saatchi Gallery)

The street can be a place to work, to live or to shop. It can be a focus for bustling activity and a celebration of diversity. It can also be a site for conflict, anxiety, loneliness, alienation and economic gloom. This exhibition brings together artists who explore the darker side of the urban environment as well as those who celebrate its potency as a glimpse of modern life. Many of the works have been acquired for the region's collections with the support of the Art Fund. Artists include Mohamed Bourouissa, Nathan Coley, Matias Faldbakken, Barry McGee, Miao Xiaochun, Nicolas Provost, Dayanita Singh, Gavin Turk and Zhang Enli.All works jointly acquired by The New Art Gallery Walsall and Birmingham Museum &amp; Art Gallery. Presented by the Art Fund through Art Fund International.

Street

The street can be a place to work, to live or to shop. It can be a focus for bustling activity and a celebration of diversity. It can also be a site for conflict, anxiety, loneliness, alienation and economic gloom. This exhibition brings together artists who explore the darker side of the urban environment as well as those who celebrate its potency as a glimpse of modern life. Many of the works have been acquired for the region's collections with the support of the Art Fund.

Britain Creates 2012: Fashion + Art Collusion is an opportunity to acknowledge and promote the longstanding relationship between British fashion designers and contemporary artists in the year of London&rsquo;s hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Nine pairs of designers and artists, which consist of Gavin Turk and Hussein Chalayan, were given a completely open brief to see what would emerge from the dialogue between their respective disciplines. The results encompass sculpture, video, music and photography.Turk and Chalayan have created an audio track that perfectly embodies this idea. The very first time they met, at Turk&rsquo;s studio, Chalayan interviewed Turk about his enduring preoccupation with the mythical status and identity of the Artist, with authorship and authenticity. When Chalayan came to edit the transcript of their conversation it suggested the lyrics of a song, and from that the idea of a track called &lsquo;4 Minute Mile&rsquo; emerged, the duration fixed by the speed record famously broken by Roger Bannister, the tempo such that you could run or train to it. The track begins with the pounding of running feet and the sound of breathing, which maintain an insistent tempo throughout. Turk&rsquo;s voice intones his reflections on art and his role as artist, while Chalayan provides melody and a chanted echo or chorus behind.Turk &amp; Chalayan's collaboration is being exhibited to the public at the V&amp;A throughout July. An accompanying catalogue is available.The &lsquo;4 Minute Mile&rsquo; vinyl (pictured above), which is a limited edition of 100 copies, is available to purchase from The Vinyl Factory.Featuring: Hussein Chalayan + Gavin Turk Giles Deacon + Jeremy Deller Mary Katrantzou + Mark Titchner Nicholas Kirkwood + Simon Periton Peter Pilotto + Francis Upritchard Jonathan Saunders + Jess Flood-Paddock Paul Smith + Charming Baker Stephen Jones + Cerith Wyn Evans Matthew Williamson + Mat Collishaw

Britain Creates 2012: Fashion + Art Collusion 

Britain Creates 2012: Fashion + Art Collusion is an opportunity to acknowledge and promote the longstanding relationship between British fashion designers and contemporary artists in the year of London’s hosting of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.Nine pairs of designers and artists, which consist of Gavin Turk and Hussein Chalayan, were given a completely open brief to see what would emerge from the dialogue between their respective disciplines. The results encompass sculpture, video, music and photography.

In 2012, Gavin Turk’s&nbsp;En Face series travelled to Vienna to feature at Galerie Krinzinger. The series consisted of a collection of 72 clay busts created in an interactive performance that took place at the artist’s London studio in April of 2010.

For The Bust Party, as it was known, Turk invited a group of people to manipulate the still wet clay of the busts in order to transform them into Surrealist “Exquisite Corpse.” In doing so, the artist had folded the public into the creative process, giving them the chance to add their own mark to a work in process.

The result was En Face, a title derived from French which Turk used to create a play on words describing a situation in which the viewer is confronted with a work of art and is capable of extracting and re-printing his or her own personal mark directly onto it.

The exhibition questioned the role of art, artists and its viewers. Turk’s intention was to suggest the idea of art as authorless, the result of a collaborative effort by a group of people whose involvement was – in this case - not just limited to the interpretative task of looking at the work.

Also notable are the titles that Turk had given to each of the busts. These were all anagrams of his own name, again, commenting on the value of authorship and identity. These titles included Raving Kut, Gavring Tuk, and Gun Irk Vat (all 2010)

Clay

Faces

Identity

Authorship

In 2012, Gavin Turk’s En Face series travelled to Vienna to feature at Galerie Krinzinger. The series consisted of a collection of 72 clay busts created in an interactive performance that took place at the artist’s London studio in April of 2010.

En Face (Vienna)

Current artistic practice in London is entirely diverse with no dominant school or group easily located or pinpointed. Awash with talent, it is constantly evolving and mutating. Advances in technology coupled with societal and cultural change, have expanded valid artistic territory opening new avenues for exploration. Concurrently, time-honoured areas of inquiry such as the treatment of nature and identity are given new twists, explored in both sublime and subversive contexts.This exhibition does not aim to be representative of the London &ldquo;art scene&rdquo; as a whole, nor a survey of those at the top of the tree. It is a personal snapshot of the work of artists whose shows and studios I have visited over the last year.London 12 is set in the historical confines of the exquisite ancient Stone Bell House, which both restricts and inspires the works chosen. Dating back to the mid 13th Century, this unique Gothic Town Palace is one of the most exquisite buildings in Prague. The Museum hosts exhibitions of contemporary and modern art as one of the three sites of the City Gallery of Prague. London 12 juxtaposes generations, as well as established and emerging artists. The works are presented aesthetically in order to take advantage of the unique character and nature of the building. However, there are threads and themes that run through the show.Many of the artists explore issues of identity and what it is to be British. London, as a cultural melting pot attracts artists from all over the world who filter its influence through the lens of their past experience. Other British born and based artists explore what it means to be such within a changing world. Nature is historically a recurring artistic inspiration, although its influence has perhaps not been as heavily associated with contemporary art in recent times. Several of the artists investigate it within the context of their existence in the city environment offering different twists through assemblage, video, performance and painting. Finally many of the artists in this exhibition are concerned with new ways to address abstraction. One thread is the interest in how colour, light and form in abstract painting create a pact with the viewer, whereby he or she interacts with the work through movement and the science of visual processing. Others create work that could only be made now with advances in technology and others refer to history aiming for timelessness or as a referential anchor.Of course trying to categorise the artists in the show is full of opportunity for misrepresentation. Many artists involved would feel their work to be unfairly labelled within such categories. In the end the mandate is for a snap shot of London&rsquo;s artistic practice and as such, like the city itself, thrives on its diversity. Curated by Toby Clarke

London Twelve

Current artistic practice in London is entirely diverse with no dominant school or group easily located or pinpointed. Awash with talent, it is constantly evolving and mutating. Advances in technology coupled with societal and cultural change, have expanded valid artistic territory opening new avenues for exploration. Concurrently, time-honoured areas of inquiry such as the treatment of nature and identity are given new twists, explored in both sublime and subversive contexts.

Herrick Gallery is proud to present PLATE: an exciting and delightful selection of artists' plates created especially for the gallery's inaugural exhibition.

PLATE

Herrick Gallery is proud to present PLATE: an exciting and delightful selection of artists' plates created especially for the gallery's inaugural exhibition.

In June of 2012 Turk launched his trio of Editioned Door Prints at Galerie Simpson.

The images are (almost literally) stunning, the way the forms burn and leap from the page. There is radiance to the image that references Magritte’s painting ‘La Victoire’, rendered in neon. Printed on Somerset Satin fine art paper, using archival digital methods, silkscreen glazes were then used to enhance the vibrancy of the neon affect and saturate the depth of the surrounding darkness. 

The door can be a surreal gateway; an invitation to go somewhere - the other side, the imagination and to the great art alchemists of the past - a salute to Duchamp whose '11 Rue Larrey' is a door that is never open or shut. Duchamp's door was built from wood and situated in his studio; Gavin's glows electric in midnight black space. It is this amazing, spectral (and spiritual) contrast that’s presented, Op art in an exquisite fine art form.

Door Print Edition Launch

In June of 2012 Turk launched his trio of Editioned Door Prints at Galerie Simpson.

SNAP was launched in June 2011 as part of the Aldeburgh Festival&rsquo;s visual arts programme. Based at the home of Aldeburgh Music at Snape Maltings on the Suffolk coast, SNAP presents leading international artists alongside some lesser-known emerging talents, all with connections to the area.Two artists who now live and work in Suffolk, Abigail Lane and Sarah Lucas, have been instrumental in developing SNAP, and in assembling the artists involved. Sadie Coles, part-time resident in the area, was also integral to the project&rsquo;s instigation. The shows are developed and coordinated by Abigail Lane in association with Aldeburgh Music.SNAP 2012 will include Glenn Brown, May Cornet, Matthew Darbyshire with Scott King, Brian Eno, Ryan Gander, Maggi Hambling, Mark Limbrick, Gavin Turk and Emily Richardson. Again the artists will penetrate the fabric of the festival&rsquo;s home by presenting both new and existing works in the foyers, concert halls, derelict buildings and outdoor sites, the result being a chance to see art in vigorous way outside a conventional gallery setting. SNAP 2012 promises to be a show as lively as the first and will incorporate painting, print, installation, sculpture and sound. The works will sit alongside permanent or long term sculptures outdoors at Snape including Barbara Hepworth&rsquo;s Family of Man, Henry Moore's Large Interior Form, Alison Wilding&rsquo;s Migrant and Sarah Lucas&rsquo;s Perceval.SNAP develops the existing visual arts programme that has been present since the first Aldeburgh Festival in 1948. In the past this programme has included a wide range of artists, mostly rooted in the area or linked to the music for which the festival is best known including, amongst many others, John Constable, Sydney Nolan, John Piper and Howard Hodgkin.

SNAP - Art at the Aldeburgh Festival

SNAP was launched in June 2011 as part of the Aldeburgh Festival’s visual arts programme. Based at the home of Aldeburgh Music at Snape Maltings on the Suffolk coast, SNAP presents leading international artists alongside some lesser-known emerging talents, all with connections to the area.

Jacob&rsquo;s Island Gallery is pleased to present The End, a group exhibition that alludes to the tradition of memento mori and offers a contemporary interpretation. As the title suggests, all works in the exhibition literally or metaphorically reference mortality and the brevity and fragility of human life.Artists have drawn upon symbolic motifs associated with all things finite since antiquity. The artists presented in The End continue this tradition with fresh eyes, juxtaposing symbols extracted from the history of art with contemporary still lifes and other narrated scenarios. They address and contextualise these issues, bringing them into the 21st century whilst harking back to the notions of poetically succinct meditations on longed for pasts and inevitable futures.By beginning at the end, the death's head is the most prevalent symbol, however other objects convey less literal areas of investigation, extending into depictions of obituaries, eulogies, turned fruit, last suppers, nature morte, funerary art and the close associate of memento mori, vanitas still life. In addition to the symbols of mortality these include other objects whose connotations remind us explicitly of the vanity (in the sense of worthlessness) of worldly pleasures and goods. These depictions encourage us to ponder our material possessions in relation to the fact that when deceased they will be rendered worthless and unnecessary.An undercurrent of humour noir runs throughout, which may provoke an uneasy mixture of laughter, discomfort and contemplation.Mercedes Baliarda, Peter Callesen, Darren Coffield, Mat Collishaw, Kevin Francis Gray, Neil Hamon, James Hopkins, John Isaacs, Hugh Mendes, John Stark, Gavin Turk, Neil Zakiewicz

The End

Jacob’s Island Gallery is pleased to present The End, a group exhibition that alludes to the tradition of memento mori and offers a contemporary interpretation. As the title suggests, all works in the exhibition literally or metaphorically reference mortality and the brevity and fragility of human life.

What relationship does the copy have with its original? How important is authenticity and what role does forgery play? As digital media has developed over the years, the function and aesthetic value of reproductions and copies have become increasingly important &ndash; and not only since the rise of YouTube and Flickr. The exhibition D&eacute;j&agrave;-vu? features a collection of outstanding copies and reproductions of artwork dating back to the Middle Ages. Visitors will have the chance to view copies of famous works by D&uuml;rer, Giorgione and Holbein, as well as pieces by Brueghel, Matisse, Baselitz, Duchamps, Cindy Sherman and Francis Al&yuml;s, which are copies or contain references to existing artworks. The goal of the exhibition is to acknowledge the historic value of copies and not present them merely as second-rate reproductions. In view of society&rsquo;s veneration of original works and the museums&rsquo; traditional role in their preservation, this exhibition also examines the copy as an independent reflection and symptom of art-sociological and historical contexts. The planning and implementation of the exhibition is being jointly coordinated by the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe and the Karlsruher Hochschule f&uuml;r Gestaltung, which have previously co-organized a conference on the same topic. The organizers plan on publishing an extensive catalogue which addresses the art-historical and theoretical aspects of the topic and its connections to other disciplines, e.g. the philosophy of law. An educational programme will feature a corresponding exhibition for children and young adults.

Déjà-vu? The Art of Reproduction from Dürer to YouTube

What relationship does the copy have with its original? How important is authenticity and what role does forgery play? As digital media has developed over the years, the function and aesthetic value of reproductions and copies have become increasingly important – and not only since the rise of YouTube and Flickr. The exhibition Déjà-vu? features a collection of outstanding copies and reproductions of artwork dating back to the Middle Ages.

Chris Sharp and Simone Menegoi are the fifth guest curators invited by D.R.A.F. to be part of the Curators' Series. The title for the exhibition is taken from Gustave Flaubert's last, unfinished novel where two Parisian copyists Bouvard and P&eacute;cuchet meet, become dear friends, and stoke each other's curiosity to know the world and its rational, post-Enlightenment ways better. They become autodidacts of a dozen different orders, teaching themselves everything from agriculture to medicine. However, despite their best intellectual intentions, any application of the often contradictory knowledge they recklessly accumulate almost always results in confusion, failure or disaster. Yet success is not entirely elusive. One moment a given principle works, whereas in the next it doesn&rsquo;t. This in turn leads them to continually cry in vain, O&ugrave; est la r&egrave;gle? (Where is the rule?), as if the clarity and understanding of the supposedly knowable world promised by the Age of Reason were but a farce.In a time when any one individual can access and amass vast and even arcane stores of information, Flaubert's hapless antiheroes seem to be both prescient harbingers and symbols of our era. Their headlong approach can also be said to implicitly describe a good portion of what takes place in contemporary art today, in which we are faced with an obscure and at times questionable expertise on a bewildering multiplicity of subjects. Seeking to render this implicit tendency explicit and examine its implications, Bouvard and P&eacute;cuchet's Compendious Quest for Beauty sees curators Simone Menegoi and Chris Sharp apply the hasty methodology of the perplexed copyists to the field of curating. By effectively becoming Bouvard and P&eacute;cuchet, they liberally allow themselves to engage in the foredoomed hubris of trying to define one of the most protean and subjective qualities of all: beauty. They do so by using a format that is a byproduct of the Enlightenment itself: the exhibition.The selection of works in the exhibition was deliberately limited to D.R.A.F.&rsquo;s vast and variegated collection of more than 1800 works. The curators outlined ten categories of beauty with the intention of disobeying and scrambling the traditional history of aesthetics. Indeed, the art works presented in the show are arranged within unwieldy and contradictory criteria, which range from egregious misreading to mutual contradiction and from poetic fancy to traditionally acceptable interpretation. Categories of beauty include: Classic; Expressive; Female Nude; Memento Mori; Realism; Landscape; Moral; Outsider art; Abstraction; and the Sublime.Artists: Caroline Achaintre, Phyllida Barlow, Yto Barrada, Morton Bartlett, Bram Bogart, Boyle Family, Sir Frank Brangwyn, Peter Buggenhout, Gerard Byrne, Carter, Susan Collis, George Condo, John Currin, Jules Dalou, Thomas Demand, VALIE EXPORT, Graham Hudson, Tamara De Lempicka, Roy Lichtenstein, Mark Manders, Susan Meiselas, Marlo Pascual, Grayson Perry, Seth Pick, Man Ray, Santiago Sierra, David Shrigley, Jamie Shovlin, Andreas Slominski, Oscar Tuazon, Gavin Turk, and Douglas White.The exhibition is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

Curators' Series #5 - Bouvard and Pécuchet's Compendious Quest for Beauty

Chris Sharp and Simone Menegoi are the fifth guest curators invited by D.R.A.F. to be part of the Curators' Series. The title for the exhibition is taken from Gustave Flaubert's last, unfinished novel where two Parisian copyists Bouvard and Pécuchet meet, become dear friends, and stoke each other's curiosity to know the world and its rational, post-Enlightenment ways better. They become autodidacts of a dozen different orders, teaching themselves everything from agriculture to medicine.

Is it real? Lifelike invites a close examination of artworks based on commonplace objects and situations, which are startlingly realistic, often playful, and sometimes surreal. This international group exhibition features artists variously using scale, unusual materials, and sly contextual devices to reveal the manner in which their subjects’ “authenticity” is manufactured. Avoiding the brand-name flashiness embraced by 1960s Pop and the slick urban scenes introduced at that time by the Photorealists, the artists in Lifelike investigate the quieter side of the quotidian, choosing potentially overlooked items or moments as subject matter: a paper bag, an eraser, an apple core, a waiting room, an afternoon nap. They also favor a handmade, labor-intensive practice rather than technological enhancements. The resulting works—including painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, and video—transform the ordinary into something beguiling, loaded with narrative and metaphor, and imbued with an arresting sense of humanity. 
Lifelike showcases works from the late 1960s to the present by 55 artists, including Vija Celmins, Keith Edmier, Fischli and Weiss, Robert Gober, Alex Hay, Kaz Oshiro, Charles Ray, Sam Taylor-Wood, and Ai Weiwei. 
A Walker-produced catalogue accompanies the exhibition. Featuring painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, video, and installations by more than 50 artists, Lifelike is the first publication to address the recent history of artists using these strategies across media. With texts by Siri Engberg, Josiah McElheny, Michael Lobel, and Rochelle Steiner.

Lifelike

Is it real? Lifelike invites a close examination of artworks based on commonplace objects and situations, which are startlingly realistic, often playful, and sometimes surreal. This international group exhibition features artists variously using scale, unusual materials, and sly contextual devices to reveal the manner in which their subjects’ “authenticity” is manufactured.

Lifelike (Walker Art Centre)

Made In Britain: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection 1980 - 2010 is a touring exhibition created in partnership with the Sichuan Provincial Museum, Xi'an Art Museum, Hong Kong Heritage Museum and Suzhou Museum.

This exhibition will provide the first opportunity for audiences in the four regional cities in China to see original art works by leading British contemporary artists, and the works included in the display were specifically selected by Chinese curators working closely with the British Council's Visual Arts Department.

Launching at the Sichuan Provincial Museum in Chengdu on 17 December, the exhibition features over 50 works by a wide range of artists, including Keith Arnatt, Helen Chadwick, Peter Doig, Gilbert &amp; George, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Cornelia Parker and Mark Wallinger, reflecting the breadth and diversity of British art throughout the 30 year period 1980-2010.

Within the period since 1980 which the exhibition covers, enormous shifts have taken place in the role which art plays within British society. From Gilbert &amp; George's Intellectual Depression (1980) to Gary Hume's Sister Troop (2009), this exhibition tells the story of how art has mapped and reflected these changes - and indeed been at the very forefront of social change itself.

Contemporary art in the UK has undeniably taken on a more socially engaged position in British society over the past three decades. Some of this shift can be attributed to the arrival of a new, entrepreneurial and ambitious generation of artists in the early 1990s, collectively known as the YBAs (Young British Artists) and including artists such as Michael Landy, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, and Gillian Wearing.

Other factors, such as the introduction of the Turner Prize in 1984 (the first prize to be awarded to young contemporary artists in the UK); the opening of Tate Modern in 2000 (the first dedicated public gallery for modern and contemporary art in the UK); the elision of art, advertising and the creative industries, particularly following the launch of the Saatchi Gallery in 1985; and the abolition of admission charges to UK public galleries and museums in 2001, have all played their part in bringing contemporary art to far larger audiences than ever before - often audiences with no prior experience or knowledge of the visual arts.

Made in Britain

Made In Britain: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection 1980 - 2010 is a touring exhibition created in partnership with the Sichuan Provincial Museum, Xi'an Art Museum, Hong Kong Heritage Museum and Suzhou Museum. This exhibition will provide the first opportunity for audiences in the four regional cities in China to see original art works by leading British contemporary artists, and the works included in the display were specifically selected by Chinese curators working closely with the British Council's Visual Arts Department.