EXPRESSION presents a unique survey of works grouped under the theme of portraiture. While portraiture is a traditional, time-honoured genre, this exhibition offers a new perspective by bringing together iconic portrait paintings by artists such as Max Beckmann, Frank Auerbach and Lucien Freud with works by artists such as Not Vital, Lara Favaretto and John Bock which stretch the conventional understanding of portraiture.

Expression: A Philosophical Portrait of Humankind

EXPRESSION presents a unique survey of works grouped under the theme of portraiture. While portraiture is a traditional, time-honoured genre, this exhibition offers a new perspective by bringing together iconic portrait paintings by artists such as Max Beckmann, Frank Auerbach and Lucien Freud with works by artists such as Not Vital, Lara Favaretto and John Bock which stretch the conventional understanding of portraiture.

Glasstress: White Light | White Heat opened at the preview of the Venice Biennale on 30 May 2013 at the Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti on the Grand Canal and at the Berengo Centre for Contemporary Art and Glass. The exhibition now travels for the first time to London, exhibited at London College of Fashion's Fashion Space Gallery and The Wallace Collection.Work from the Glasstress collateral event at the 55th International La Biennale di Venezia (2013) travels to London College of Fashion and The Wallace Collection as part of a two-venue exhibition curated by James Putnam, a Senior Research Fellow at London College of Fashion.In a unique collaboration between the Berengo Studio, Venice Projects, London College of Fashion and the Wallace Collection, Glasstress: White Light | White Heat presents the newly commissioned work of some of today&rsquo;s most important contemporary artists, most of whom worked in glass for the first time.The 2013 Glasstress exhibition builds on the success of two previous Venice Art Biennale Glasstress shows (2009, 2011) and this is the first time that the work has toured to the UK. The Venice exhibition saw sixty-five artists responding to the theme of light and heat, the components of fire, the fundamental elements involved in the formation of the universe and also the essence of glassblowing. Light is integral to our perception of glass, while heat is required to shape it.

Glasstress 2013: White Light / White Heat

Glasstress: White Light | White Heat opened at the preview of the Venice Biennale on 30 May 2013 at the Palazzo Cavalli Franchetti on the Grand Canal and at the Berengo Centre for Contemporary Art and Glass. The exhibition now travels for the first time to London, exhibited at London College of Fashion's Fashion Space Gallery and The Wallace Collection.

Beagles &amp; Ramsay / Bryan Derballa / Cathrine &amp; Katharine / David Eager Maher / Erica Eyres / Gavin Turk / Georgia Rose Murray / Harry Hill / Jim Fitzpatrick / Joe Duggan / Lewis den Hertog / Magda Archer / Michael Beirne / Nevan Lahart / Paul Hallahan / Rachael Corcoran / Rachel Maclean / Richard Kern / Sonia Shiel / Stephen Marshall / Vanessa Donoso-Lopez / and quite possibly Lee WelchCurated by Rachael CorcoranI want to be your dog is an exhibition that isn&rsquo;t about anything in particular &ndash; but I guess if it were to be about something it would probably be about dogs. If not, it might be about sex, or submission, or Iggy Pop. Or it might be about all of these things, or it might be about something else entirely.

I Want To Be Your Dog

Beagles & Ramsay / Bryan Derballa / Cathrine & Katharine / David Eager Maher / Erica Eyres / Gavin Turk / Georgia Rose Murray / Harry Hill / Jim Fitzpatrick / Joe Duggan / Lewis den Hertog / Magda Archer / Michael Beirne / Nevan Lahart / Paul Hallahan / Rachael Corcoran / Rachel Maclean / Richard Kern / Sonia Shiel / Stephen Marshall / Vanessa Donoso-Lopez / and quite possibly Lee WelchCurated by Rachael Corcoran

To incorporate contemporary art into the public arena, in the heart of Namur, and so allow access to the general public - this is the aim of the &quot;Sculpture in Town&quot; tour, an event organised and run by the Cultural Service for more than 10 years now. This year, only one monumental, emblematic, 'must-see' work was chosen: L'Age d'Or by the renowned British artist Gavin Turk.Disembodied from any room, structure or building, this painted bronze door, which appears from its peeling varnish to have been left exposed to the elements for some years, opens or closes (depending on which way you look at it) onto infinite possibilities and nothingness, alike. A playful homage to William Blake&rsquo;s famous doors of perception, visitors are invited to walk through Turk&rsquo;s door into the enchanting realms of the imagination and beyond.Gavin Turk (b. 1967) is a British born, international artist. He has pioneered many forms of contemporary sculpture that are now taken for granted, including the painted bronze, the waxwork, the recycled art-historical icon and the use of rubbish in art.Turk&rsquo;s installations and sculptures deal with issues of authorship, authenticity and identity. Concerned with the &lsquo;myth&rsquo; of the artist and the &lsquo;authorship&rsquo; of a work, Turk&rsquo;s engagement with this Modernist, avant-garde debate stretches back to the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp.

Sculpture dans la Ville - L'Age d'Or

To incorporate contemporary art into the public arena, in the heart of Namur, and so allow access to the general public - this is the aim of the "Sculpture in Town" tour, an event organised and run by the Cultural Service for more than 10 years now. This year, only one monumental, emblematic, 'must-see' work was chosen: L'Age d'Or by the renowned British artist Gavin Turk.

David Nolan Gallery is pleased to present Sculpture after Artschwager &ndash; an exhibition which examines the diverse legacy of American artist, Richard Artschwager (1923-2013). On view from September 12 through October 26, the show brings together 10 artists whose work testifies a relationship to his highly original output.Artschwager came of age as an artist during the early 1960s when a new generation of sculptors were having their first exhibitions in New York City. Notable among these were Robert Morris and Donald Judd, whose measured geometric forms would eventually become labeled under &ldquo;minimalism&rdquo;. Artschwager exhibited alongside these artists in a 1966 sculpture survey at the Jewish Museum, though his work &ndash; a sculpture of a table, rendered in formica &ndash; was set apart for its kitsch materials and light-hearted humor. This playfulness and humanity, which runs throughout Artschwager&rsquo;s practice, is what distinguishes him from many of the artists who were making work in wake of modernism.In this exhibition, we assess a number of Artschwager&rsquo;s themes and formal innovations, which we trace through a variety of younger artists who are working currently. One exception is a sculpture by Martin Kippenberger (1953-1997), which was first shown in an exhibition entitled A Man and His Golden Arm (in our SoHo gallery) in 1994. This work is comprised of a wall-mounted wood and bronze relief affixed with 34 colored objects. On the floor below is a shipping crate, whose unusual proportions are designed to accommodate the piece above. This self-conscious announcement of the work of art as a commodity relates to a concurrent body of work in Artschwager&rsquo;s practice (which, by coincidence, was presented the same year at another gallery in New York) wherein finely crafted wooden crates confounded the typical expectation of &ldquo;art&rdquo;, offering a witty take on the art market and the impulse to collect.Artschwager&rsquo;s groundbreaking discovery in the 1960s was the use of commercial-grade products as possible materials in art. Many of his paintings made use of Celotex (designed for ceiling insulation), which lent a peculiar patterning to his pictorial surfaces. The use of formica was another interesting innovation, as it involved the transfer of a two-dimensional surface &ndash; often a photographic representation of wood &ndash; onto a three-dimensional object. This relationship is developed by British artist, Gavin Turk (b. 1967) whose bronze sculptures of ordinary objects (a cardboard box, a car tire) are meticulously oil-painted, in effect re-animating the traditional idea of the &ldquo;trompe-l&rsquo;oeil&rdquo; within in a three-dimensional realm.Gavin Turk has described &ldquo;the overt recognition of what we are looking at&rdquo; in relation to Artschwager&rsquo;s sculpture: recurring objects &ndash; tables, doors, mirrors or a basket &ndash; are articulated thorough stylization and an economy of means, often to a point of caricature. Jennifer Gross characterizes these objects as &ldquo;protagonists in Artschwager&rsquo;s pictorial/spatial drama&rdquo; which exist in &ldquo;a world of surreal banality through which he thoroughly investigated the boundaries of a room inhabited by familiar things&rdquo;. This exhibition extends on this spatial drama, casting various uncanny objects from everyday life into an unusual stage show. Adam McEwen&rsquo;s (b. 1965) Rolldown Gate could be a conceptual stand-in for an Artschwager door &ndash; instantly recognizable, but also surprising &ndash; while Isabel Nolan&rsquo;s (b. 1974) Invisible Mirror re-invokes Artschwager&rsquo;s versions of the mirror motif.Towards the end of his career, Artschwager turned his focus to images of an open road leading out to a horizon. Blair Thurman (b. 1961) touches on this theme, as do Nate Lowman (b. 1979) and Dan Colen (b. 1979) in a collaborative piece. In each of these works, road imagery is enlisted in the making of highly original sculptures.Finally, the exhibition introduces the work of Justin Adian (b. 1976), whose unusual wall-mounted sculptures recall Artschwager&rsquo;s radical &ldquo;blps&rdquo;, which, seemingly useless, appear in unexpected places. Adian&rsquo;s sculpture &ndash; essentially a painted canvas, stretched over a strangely shaped support &ndash; resides in the corner of the room (a favored placement for Artschwager). Its brightly keyed yellow was also an important color in Artschwager&rsquo;s work, featuring in the formica pieces of the early 1960s and in the wild and imaginative landscapes drawn at the end of his life.

Sculpture After Artschwager

David Nolan Gallery is pleased to present Sculpture after Artschwager – an exhibition which examines the diverse legacy of American artist, Richard Artschwager (1923-2013). On view from September 12 through October 26, the show brings together 10 artists whose work testifies a relationship to his highly original output.

This solo show by Gavin Turk was presented by The Monaco Project for the Arts within the Pavillon Bosio of the Ecole Supérieure d’Arts Plastique de la Ville de Monaco.

Responding to Monte Carlo’s tradition of Grand Prix, Turk’s GT was a platform for futurology, converting cultural exhaustion to a forward thrust propellant. Infiltrating the Riviera’s glamour with his British punk ethos, Turk presented sculptures, screen prints, and a performance of production-by-proxy made in collaboration with students from Monaco’s leading art school.

Central to the exhibition is Turk’s new sculpture, Pipe, a hyper-realistically finished bronze cast of a transit van exhaust pipe: a hallowed relic of England’s fading working class, corroded artefact of modern technology, a doppelganger of avant-garde abstraction. Enshrined in a vitrine, it subsumes Beuys’ pedagogy and altruism; a pseudo spiritual totem of Turk’s own-brand conceptualism, where originality is the by-product of depletion.

Replete with functional garden hose and humorous steaming head, Turk’s bronze cast Self Portrait (Fountain) poses as an homage to Alighiero Boetti’s My Mind Is Burning; the lineage of idea and form amended and progressed, a masterpiece in continuum, less ‘appropriated’ than ‘occupied’ by Turk’s reproduction.

Also shown were Turk’s Transit Disaster silk-screens, hijacking not only Warhol’s process and aesthetics, but also the subject matter of his Car Crash series. Warhol’s famous emblems of American horror are supplanted by Turk’s images, fuelled by UK tabloid hysteria: burnt out transit vans and muscle cars, hoodies and hooligans – ‘broken Britain’s’ disenfranchised and underclass, equally endangered and threatening – anointed in toxic auras.

Turk’s Small Nail, which stands man-high, operated as a vacant portrait. Driven into the ground as a landmark or declaration, it is the very armature for art (seemingly placed by the divine force of a Creator). It represented an open manifesto of art’s endowment and potential – Turk’s own authentic gesture inviting public response.

Collaborating with Monaco’s young artists, Turk invited each student to design their own logo identity, and contribute to his show by adding their own artistic signatures. Exhibited alongside Turk’s idiosyncratic appropriations – as both co-authors and a performative franchise – were a new generation of cultural visionaries, Turk’s co-opted art of the future.

The Monaco Project for the Arts presents Gavin Turk – GT (The Project 2013) (3)

Presented by The Monaco Project

This solo show by Gavin Turk was presented by The Monaco Project for the Arts within the Pavillon Bosio of the Ecole Supérieure d’Arts Plastique de la Ville de Monaco.

GT (The Project 2013)

As British politics started once again to chase its own tail against the background of further vicious cuts to the arts the artist Dominic Allan, aka Dominic from Luton, took matters in to his own hand to fly the flag for Britain. No self-proclaiming jingoism here, just a desire to make things happen: willpower over budget: ambition and talent superseding any economic imperative. On-going conversations with Kling &amp; Bang, an internationally established Icelandic artist-run-space (based in Reykjavik), resulted in London Utd - not so much a celebration of London itself but the relationships that make it tick, via Luton, of course. All of the works in the exhibition present the dramatic, glorious point where everything sits on the edge of the abyss, looks down and laughs, poking fun at the sheer audacity of chaos. Mark Titchner&rsquo;s emblematic work, The World Isn&rsquo;t Working, has been translated into Icelandic and realised in the red, white and blue of our symbiotic identities. Whilst subtly referencing the gentle typography of folk art the statement demands our attention mush as the glorious Trade Union banners, now housed in museums, shouted for the international rights of men and women. Another symbol of fading glories, the Transit van, becomes the centre-piece of Gavin Turk&rsquo;s work Large Transit Disaster Diptych, 2013. A direct homage to Warhol&rsquo;s Car Crash series Turk&rsquo;s work as ever comes with many layers, referencing that underbelly of British life, the white van man - his downfall underpinned as the Luton-based car factories collapse. Allan&rsquo;s own work, Dominic from Luton as Paul Young, continues to unpick the demise of the hero &ndash; or perhaps provokes its resurrection. His pre&ndash;performance photograph as the 80&rsquo;s icon, dressed in images of himself as himself, now singing for a pint in the local working men&rsquo;s club, bravely looks you in the eye, demanding attention but asking for your confirmation nonetheless. It&rsquo;s a powerful choice to consistently reference and re-use your own work. Confidence exudes through the works as all of the artists in this exhibition as they exert authority over their practice and imagery. Laura White continually pushes and pulls at the conventions inherent in presenting work. Conformity has no place as her new drawings for London Utd flip the sculptural norm and photographs of her sharply coloured sculptures are reprinted in monochrome and painstakingly overdrawn with pencil. Suggestive of the fading black and white photographs of old National Geographic&rsquo;s her earlier references to anthropological collections come into full focus and begin new conversations not least around our current place in the world. As honest appraisals of his journey through a work and deliberately sliding in and out of easy definition Peter Lamb&rsquo;s diptych for London Utd highlights the role of the artist, artwork, studio and audience &ndash; all bound together in a complex, unfolding relationship. The familiar touchstone of his studio floor is reworked through photography and scale, overlaid with paint and studio materials, the work finally titled by his children. Chaos has been put in a box, allowed out on occasion to shake its finger at us all, allowing chance instead to reign supreme. And so London Utd, a group of artists brought together by player manager Allan, heads to Iceland for an away game with a welcoming host, bound together by the sheer confidence of works that all have something to say.

London Utd.

As British politics started once again to chase its own tail against the background of further vicious cuts to the arts the artist Dominic Allan, aka Dominic from Luton, took matters in to his own hand to fly the flag for Britain. No self-proclaiming jingoism here, just a desire to make things happen: willpower over budget: ambition and talent superseding any economic imperative.

Art Car Boot Fair 2013

The Art of Not Making

Paul Stolper Gallery is delighted to announce the new portfolio and exhibition &lsquo;SNAP 2012 &ndash; THE PORTFOLIO&rsquo;, a collection of eleven large-scale prints. The exhibition and portfolio follows on from the success of &lsquo;SNAP 2011- THE PORTFOLIO&rsquo;. Like the former publication, this latest series is published in an edition of 50 signed and numbered digital inkjet prints and includes artists Aston Ernest, Brian Eno, Emily Richardson, Gavin Turk, Glenn Brown, Maggi Hambling, Mark Limbrick, Matthew Darbyshire, May Cornet, Ryan Gander and Scott King. The works have been published by Paul Stolper Gallery to coincide with the &lsquo;SNAP&rsquo; exhibition at Snape Maltings, part of the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and Arts. The artist proceeds from the sale of &lsquo;SNAP 2012 &ndash; THE PORTFOLIO&rsquo;, will generously benefit the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts. The exhibition at the Aldeburgh Festival 2013, opening on the 8th of June, will celebrate the centenary of the English composer, conductor, pianist, and founder of the Aldeburgh Festival, Benjamin Britten. Two artists who now live and work in Suffolk, Abigail Lane and Sarah Lucas, have been instrumental to the initiation of SNAP. Speaking of the project, Lane explains, &lsquo;It has become clear that a lot of interesting artists have rekindled links to this area in the last few years &ndash; it&rsquo;s quite extraordinary. The reasons for this are not clear-cut but obviously something is occurring&hellip;as a result SNAP was initiated.&rsquo; Since SNAP 2011, it has been revealed that many artists working today share a connection with East Anglia, either as their home, their place of work or their place of origin.The diverse group of artists participating in &lsquo;SNAP 2012- THE PORTFOLIO&rsquo; includes the painter Maggi Hambling, sound artist Brian Eno, who exhibited his sculpture &lsquo;Iceland&rsquo; in the 2011 exhibition at Snape, Maltings, and text based artist Scott King. Though each of the eleven images is specific to the contributors&rsquo; unique artistic practice, quite organically, elements of the portfolio gravitate thematically towards the relationship between the body and landscape - often the natural poetic force of the environs paired with the artist&rsquo;s interaction within it. The portfolio also utilizes text and photographic imagery in an unconventional mapping of the quirky, rural character of the secluded region. However, the work is not necessarily stringently defined by the geography that unites the artists. &lsquo;SNAP 2012 &ndash; THE PORTFOLIO&rsquo; is a testament to the region&rsquo;s creative magnetism, and each image is a marker for how each artist has responded to such a distinctive landscape. Jonathan Reekie, the Chief Executive of Aldeburgh Music comments, &lsquo;Our founders, Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, named their festival the Aldeburgh Festival of Music and the Arts because they wanted the visual arts to complement and enhance the music, as well as helping to define a sense of place, which is such a strong feature of Aldeburgh. SNAP is a fantastic opportunity to put the visual arts back at the centre of the festival, reminding people not only of this legacy but, more importantly, signaling the vibrancy of the visual arts scene in East Anglia and how a new generation of some of our best artists are being drawn to this inspirational place.&rsquo;The format of &lsquo;SNAP 2012 &ndash; THE PORTFOLIO&rsquo; is unusual in its scale, use of materials and subsequent display. Presented in an archival box, each print must be unfolded to reveal a sweeping, oversized print measuring 152.4cm x 101.6cm - figures and text are monumental and landscape all encompassing. To realise the large scale of each work, the images were printed on coated MG blue-backed paper, a paper prosaically associated with commercial media. A very uncompromising medium, the nature, texture and scale of the paper appealed to the artists who strive for the most appropriate and direct manner to show their work. An unusual choice for fine art print, the paper is more commonly pasted to walls and billboards for the use of advertising, a far cry from the poetic and complex series of images collected here. Folds and creases create a playful shadowing, indexing the associated landscape; the undulating paper resembles an unfolded map or nostalgically reminds us of cherished antique film posters. The physical act of repetitively unfolding, eventually to an overwhelming scale, builds a sense of anticipation and drama.By the same token, the deliberate folding of a fine art print is completely at odds with conventional printmaking, where the integrity and pristine condition of the paper is paramount, jealously guarded and has a direct bearing on a work&rsquo;s value. The concept of a folded print stored in an archival box appealed to the artists as the project challenges the traditional nature of prints and printmaking. As we are so unremittingly bombarded and inundated by commercial visual imagery, with which the art world is now so entangled, the large scale prints that make up &lsquo;SNAP 2012 &ndash; THE PORTFOLIO&rsquo; unashamedly hijack the methods of commercial advertising - so much so that the portfolio in its entirety equates to the size of a billboard.Within the gallery space, the eleven prints from the portfolio are, true to the nature of the material itself, plastered directly to the wall. Fated to be destroyed, the profound transience of these exhibited works stands true to the conviction of the project&rsquo;s expression of a specific happening. Due to the massive scale of each print, the collective display of &lsquo;SNAP 2012 &ndash; THE PORTFOLIO&rsquo; fully envelopes the viewer within the imaginary surroundings of the region from which it has drawn its inspiration.

Snap 2012 - The Portfolio

Paul Stolper Gallery is delighted to announce the new portfolio and exhibition ‘SNAP 2012 – THE PORTFOLIO’, a collection of eleven large-scale prints. The exhibition and portfolio follows on from the success of ‘SNAP 2011- THE PORTFOLIO’. Like the former publication, this latest series is published in an edition of 50 signed and numbered digital inkjet prints and includes artists Aston Ernest, Brian Eno, Emily Richardson, Gavin Turk, Glenn Brown, Maggi Hambling, Mark Limbrick, Matthew Darbyshire, May Cornet, Ryan Gander and Scott King.

A collaborative show between Venice's Berengo Glass Studio, the Wallace Collection and the London College of Fashion, which sees a group of artists, including Gavin Turk, showcase glass works.

GLASSTRESS: White Light / White Heat

A collaborative show between Venice's Berengo Glass Studio, the Wallace Collection and the London College of Fashion, which sees a group of artists, including Gavin Turk, showcase glass works.

Coinciding with the 55th Cenice Biennale, the Gervasuti Foundation presented Turk’s solo project Vanacular, comprising a section from his Transit Disaster series. A pun combining ‘van’ and ‘vernacular’, the title is a metaphorical nod to the social connotations that the iconic white Ford van &nbsp;of the ‘90s represents in Britain.

Vanacular revives the classic pop-art technique of silk-screen-on-canvas while referencing the works of its most celebrated exponents Andy Warhol and Robert Raushenberg with his 18 metre long Currents (1970).

Inspired by Warhol’s famous Death And Disaster series (1962-3), Turk’s Vanacular comprises a continuous 27 metre long canvas with a selection of Internet sourced images of crashed and burnt-out Ford Transit vans.

Transit Disaster series is not merely a pastiche of Warhol’s famous car crash paintings since Turk replaces the American car with an image of a white transit van, a symbol of a disappearing era of working class Britain.

Vanacular also relates, albeit indirectly, to the term ‘Fordism’, the notion of a modern economic and social system based on assembly line system of mass production for a mass market. Turk’s Vanacular represents a visual manifestation of urban unrest, which through continuous clashes and disasters is heading towards a materialistic mutationtion.

Vanacular

Coinciding with the 55th Cenice Biennale, the Gervasuti Foundation presented Turk’s solo project Vanacular, comprising a section from his Transit Disaster series. A pun combining ‘van’ and ‘vernacular’, the title is a metaphorical nod to the social connotations that the iconic white Ford van  of the ‘90s represents in Britain.

Home, Land and Sea brings together over 50 paintings from Manchester City Galleries&rsquo; exceptional 17th and 18th century Dutch and Flemish collection, one of the most important in the country. This major exhibition showcases the Galleries&rsquo; broad collection, which includes exquisite paintings of everyday life, portraiture, landscapes, seascapes, and still life. For the first time these Dutch and Flemish paintings are juxtaposed with works by major contemporary artists such as Mat Collishaw, Gavin Turk and 2013 Northern Art Prize nominee Rosalind Nashashibi. The new display places these historic paintings within the context of the Netherlands&rsquo; dramatic and prosperous history. With the Dutch Republic&rsquo;s independence came a newfound sense of identity and national pride which found expression through the arts. This exhibition, arranged thematically, demonstrates how Dutch and Flemish artists famously found new subjects in the life around them. Many of the paintings have not been on display for decades, while others have benefited from recent conservation treatment. Works include impressive domestic interiors by Pieter de Hooch, finely painted works by Gerrit Dou and Willem van Mieris, as well as charismatic portraits by Gerard ter Borch. There are views of the simple Dutch countryside in landscapes by Jan van Goyen, Aelbert Cuyp and Philips Koninck, while paintings by Jacob van Ruisdael and Jan van de Cappelle depict stormy seas and calm inland waters. Evoking the Republic&rsquo;s powerful trading empire, are still lifes of imported luxury goods by Willem Kalf, as well as meticulously painted exotic flowers by Jan van Huysum and Jan van Os. Contemporary works on display include five still lifes from Mat Collishaw&rsquo;s series of photographs, Last Meal on Death Row, Texas. Other contemporary works range from bronze painted sculptures of gnawed apples by Gavin Turk to a digitally engineered film created in homage to Ambrosius Bosschaert: Transforming Still Life Painting by Rob and Nick Carter. Rosalind Nashashibi&rsquo;s film Bachelor Machines Part I accompanies the seascapes and focuses on the lives of an all-male crew on board the Gran Bretagna, a modern-day cargo vessel. This exhibition has been curated by Henrietta Ward, The National Gallery Curatorial Trainee supported by the Art Fund. It is supported by the Aurelius Trust and Patrons of Manchester Art Gallery.

Home, Land and Sea

Home, Land and Sea brings together over 50 paintings from Manchester City Galleries’ exceptional 17th and 18th century Dutch and Flemish collection, one of the most important in the country. This major exhibition showcases the Galleries’ broad collection, which includes exquisite paintings of everyday life, portraiture, landscapes, seascapes, and still life. For the first time these Dutch and Flemish paintings are juxtaposed with works by major contemporary artists such as Mat Collishaw, Gavin Turk and 2013 Northern Art Prize nominee Rosalind Nashashibi.

On Thursday 16 May, 2013, Gavin Turk collaborated with Bristol Museum &amp; Art Gallery to take part in Museums at Night, Culture24's festival of inspiring after hours cultural events in museums, galleries and heritage sites. The museum hosted an Egyptian Extravaganza inspired by an exhibition from the British Museum, Pharaoh: King of Egypt.

It was a mystical evening of Egyptian-themed encounters with real scarab beetles, Egyptian makeup, Arabic music and dance performances and storytelling. On the night Turk revealed his own quirky interpretation of a magic flying carpet experience by exploring the mystical power of the pyramid, linking ancient and modern Egyptian worlds.

Museums at Night (3)

On Thursday 16 May, 2013, Gavin Turk collaborated with Bristol Museum & Art Gallery to take part in Museums at Night, Culture24's festival of inspiring after hours cultural events in museums, galleries and heritage sites. The museum hosted an Egyptian Extravaganza inspired by an exhibition from the British Museum, Pharaoh: King of Egypt.

Museums at Night

Coinciding with the publication of the artist’s first monograph, a major exhibition of Turk’s highly influential works was held at Ben Brown Fine Arts Gallery in London. The title signified a milestone in the artist’s career after two decades of remarkable output with deeper resonances throughout art history, the exhibition saw a number of works make their debut appearances in the UK, including pieces inspired by the distinct methods and styles of two 20th Century Italian masters: Lucio Fontana and Michelangelo Pistoletto.

Among the most recognisable works on display was Triple Pop Black and White (2011), a variant on Turk’s famous waxwork Pop (1993), in which the artist portrays himself as Sid Vicious in the gunslinging pose of Warhol’s ‘Elvis’. With this work, Turk’s appropriation of Warhol came full circle with the use of the same silkscreen process. By contrast, Oscar II (2000), a curious bust of Turk with a shotgun nose and bulging eggs for eyes, draws on the figure in Magritte’s L’ellipse.

Works inspired by Fontana’s buchi (‘holes’) and tagli (‘slashes’) series featured, Turk’s ovoid canvases are punctured with painstaking precision to spell his initials, as part of his exploration of process and authorship. Similarly, broken egg shells fixed to a canvas spell out Turk’s signature in One Thousand, Two Hundred and Thirty-Four Eggs (1997), acknowledging the Belgian Surrealist Marcel Broodthaers and the textured white canvasses of Manzoni’s ‘Achrome’ paintings.

At the exhibition Turk also premiered work inspired by the defining ‘Mirror Paintings’ Pistoletto began in the Sixties. Pistoletto’s Rubbish (2013) cleverly fuses the highly polished surfaces associated with the Italian master with a silkscreened image of Turk’s own iconic bin bag sculptures. Turks added to his collection of painted bronze sculptures with Refuse (2012), an exquisitely detailed sculpture that resembles a bin bag; Habitat (Zingy Purple) (2004); and Burnt Out (2008), which makes provocative references to sleeping rough.

The Years

Coinciding with the publication of the artist’s first monograph, a major exhibition of Turk’s highly influential works was held at Ben Brown Fine Arts Gallery in London. The title signified a milestone in the artist’s career after two decades of remarkable output with deeper resonances throughout art history, the exhibition saw a number of works make their debut appearances in the UK, including pieces inspired by the distinct methods and styles of two 20th Century Italian masters: Lucio Fontana and Michelangelo Pistoletto.

L’Amour Fou was Gavin Turk’s inaugural solo show at New York’s David Nolan Gallery. 

Combining diverse themes of urban decay and the notion of artistic originality, Turk produced a series of interconnected works relating to automotive components. Elevating ordinary objects into the realm of art, Turks paid homage to the artistic legacy of Jasper Johns, which he developed into a meditation on the demise of the British working class.

In the exhibition, Turk explored the formal possibilities of mechanical automotive components. Displayed in the first gallery were three vitrines containing painted bronze sculptures of disused car parts, painted in trompe l’oeil to replicate the real thing. 

These detailed replicas also recall Marcel Duchamp’s “readymades” – ordinary mass-produced objects presented as works of art. Turk, however, undermines that sense of authenticity through his use of bronze, traditionally a “high-art” medium. On the walls surrounding the vitrines hang large, atmospheric photographs of billowing smoke. Counterpoised menacingly against the lifeless pipes, these ghostly spirits conjure toxic forms.

In the second gallery were 11 “exhaust” drawings. Like damage to the retinas from staring too closely at the sun, the images bear witness to the waste exhumed from a car exhaust. These drawings imply an indexical relationship between cause and effect and the imprints act as record of their own making.

For Transit Compression, the artist had a white English Ford Transit van pulverized into a small unit of metal waste. For Turk, this work is a “symbol of the demise of the working class male”, acting as a wistful rebuttal to a new age of fast transport and instant communication.

In each of these works, Turk implies an ambiguous relationship between real and unreal, art and function. Retracing art historical legacies – Duchamp’s “readymades”, Johns’ bronze sculptures – Turk, powerfully challenges the myth of artistic originality.

&nbsp;

L’Amour Fou

L’Amour Fou was Gavin Turk’s inaugural solo show at New York’s David Nolan Gallery.