Gavin Turk, Burnt Out, 74 x 78 x 12 cm, Painted bronze
Gavin Turk continually investigates what it means to be an artist and many of his works deal with issues of authorship, authenticity and originality.
Turk has made his own version of works by Yves Klein, Piero Manzoni, Marcel Broodthaers, Réné Magritte and Andy Warhol in works that both disguise the ‘real’ artist as well as reveal his horizon of influence. Concerned with the ‘myth’ of the artist and the ‘authorship’ of a work, Turk’s engagement with this modernist, avant-garde debate stretches back to the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp. In the early 1990s,
Turk made a number of works based on his own signature that comment on the value that the artist’s name can confer onto a work. He has also made a number of photographic and sculptural self-portraits that often involve some degree of disguise such as his best-known sculpture ‘Pop’ (1993), a waxwork of Gavin Turk as Sid Vicious in the stance of Warhol’s Elvis Presley or ‘Che’ (1999) where he posed as the dead revolutionary Che Guevara. More recently, Turk has taken inspiration from the street, making sculptures of ordinary, everyday objects such as bin bags, sleeping bags or polystyrene coffee cups in bronze that is then painted to appear hyper-real. The works are wry and ironic, again underlining the way that an artist can transform an object’s value, and confer a canonical status to something that is literally ‘rubbish’ and usually overlooked.
Turk has also made large-scale installations, such as his work ‘The Golden Thread’ (2004), which was a huge mirrored labyrinth, referring obliquely to the anonymous architecture of corporations and retail outlets. The work is essentially ‘empty’, providing not an object for contemplation but a journey or tunnel for the viewer to be constantly presented with nothing but their own reflection.
Gavin Turk was born in Guildford in 1967 and lives and works in London. He has participated in several important group exhibitions such as Istanbul Biennial (1999), ‘Century City’, Tate Modern, London (2001), ‘Remix: Contemporary Art and Pop’, Tate Liverpool (2002) and ‘Coollustre’, Collection Lambert en Avignon (2003). Solo exhibitions include South London Gallery (1998), Centre d’Art Contemporain in Geneva (2000), The New Art Gallery, Walsall (2002), Schloss Eggenberg, Graz (2006) and GEM Museum of Contemporary Arts In The Hague (2007), Kunsthaus Baselland, Switzerland (2008). |
Artists/Organisatons
Data Wall:
AESD: Agency for Economy and Space Development:
Maziar Afrassiabi, Shahin Afrassiabi,
Sam Basu, John Colenbrander,
with thanks to Julian Meinold and
Piers O'Hanlon
NIS: New International School: Matthew Stock
Treignac Projet: Sam Basu,
Elizabeth Murray.
The Real:
Phyllida Barlow, Tom Burr,
Anne Damer, Karin Ruggaber,
Audrey Reynolds, Fergal Stapleton,
Brian Wall, Martin Westwood.
Oysters Ain't:
Karen Ay, Vanya Balogh,
Fiona Banner, Richard Bartle,
David Batchelor, Rob Beckett,
Simon Bill, Hartmut Bohm,
Jake & Dinos Chapman,
Cedric Christie, Steve Claydon,
Clem Crosby, Cullinan+Richards,
Penelope Curtis, Arnaud Desjardin,
Valerie Driscoll, Richard Ducker,
Garth Evans, Urs Fischer,
FREEE ( Dave Beech, Andy Hewitt &
Mel Jordan), John Gibbons,
Tom Gidley, Paul Gildea,
Katherine Gili, Andrea Giulivi,
Stewart Gough, Naum Gabo,
Robin Greenwood, Brian Griffiths,
Zoe Griffiths, Nicola Hicks,
Peter Hide, Flore Nove-Josserand,
Helene Kazan, Michael Kidner,
Philip King, Simon Liddiment,
Ed Lipski, Colin Lowe,
Sarah Lucas, Christina Mackie,
Rebecca Johnson Marshall,
Bruce McLean, Haroon Mirza,
Cathy de Monchaux, Henry Moore,
Zadoc Nava, Paul Neagu,
Lawson Oyekan, Eduardo Paolozzi
, Nicholas Pope, Richard Priestley,
Michael Sandle, Paul Sakoilsky,
Celia Scott, Dallas Seitz,
Meg Shirayama, Jane Simpson,
Anthony Smart, Bob & Roberta Smith,
Richard Smith, Steve Smith,
Sarah Staton, Dan Stevens,
Simon Stringer, Michael Stubbs,
Gavin Turk, Jessica Voorsanger,
Gary Webb, Richard Wentworth,
Keith Wilson, Mark Woods,
Richard Woods, Lars Wolter,
Christian Wulffen.
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LOCATION:
Almond Building,
The Biscuit Factory,
Drummond Road,
Bermondsey,
London
SE16 4DG.
[Map]
NEAREST STATION:
Bermondsey
OPENING HOURS:
26 April - 31 May
Wed - Sun 12 - 6 pm
FREE ADMISSION
CONTACT
Adam Thomas
Tara Cranswick
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