Both comic and provocative, Nail is a 12 metre bronze sculpture, treated as the title implies, to appear like a giant rusty nail. Standing at the entrance to French architect, Jean Nouvel’s shiny glass shopping centre, One New Change with the grand sixteenth century architecture of St Paul’s cathedral in the background, Nail is hammered between the ancient and modern. At the intersection of these two worlds, Nail is a nostalgic recollection of tools traditionally used by the construction industry and favoured by Turk’s archetypal white van man, now of less and less necessity in the modern architecture of One New Change. Its rustiness, meanwhile underscores the uselessness of this once useful object, while also suggesting the creep of the natural into the territory of the man-made. Not only a literal object, the nail doubles as a psychological object which suggests “nail in the coffin” and “nailed to the cross.” Rather more humorously, viewed from a certain angle, Nail appears to pin One New Change into the ground, although viewed from other angles, it hints at the empty space where what was nailed has long since been removed. A giant magnification of a miniature object, the closer the viewer stands to Nail, the more comically abstract the object appears, as by contrast, both the viewer and its surroundings appear to shrink.

Nail

Bronze - Permanent sculpture

Illusion

Public Sculpture

Both comic and provocative, Nail is a 12 metre bronze sculpture, treated as the title implies, to appear like a giant rusty nail. Standing at the entrance to French architect, Jean Nouvel’s shiny glass shopping centre, One New Change with the grand sixteenth century architecture of St Paul’s cathedral in the background, Nail is hammered between the ancient and modern.

Installation info: Handle carefully with gloves, ensuring when placed it is done so gently as painted edges are fragile. Ensure signed underside is face down.  Avoid direct sunlight, temperature fluctuations and moisture.

H.M.S Ahab

Painted bronze

Waste

Packaging

Recycling

The Sea

Domestic

Painted Bronze

Installation info: Handle carefully with gloves, ensuring when placed it is done so gently as painted edges are fragile. Ensure signed underside is face down. Avoid direct sunlight, temperature fluctuations and moisture.

Disembodied from any room, structure or building, this oversized painted wooden door, which appears from its peeling varnish, to have been left to the elements from 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’s famous doors of perception and Rene Magrittes' painting 'La Victoire', visitors are invited to walk through Turk’s trompe l'oieil door into the enchanting realms of the imagination and beyond. As ever the work highlights philosphical contradictions and is a key work within Turks oeuvre.

L'Âge d'Or (White Inside and Out)

Disembodied from any room, structure or building, this oversized painted wooden door, which appears from its peeling varnish, to have been left to the elements from 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’s famous doors of perception and Rene Magrittes' painting 'La Victoire', visitors are invited to walk through Turk’s trompe l'oieil door into the enchanting realms of the imagination and beyond.

Double Blue Elvis

Silkscreen ink and metallic paint on canvas

Elvis

Self-Portrait

Warhol

Masks

Faces

Silkscreen

The artist as Elvis in blue and black on silver

Electric Elvis

Acrylic paint and diamond dust on canvas

Lips taken from Pop image in black and pink on yellow

Yellow Sneer

Diamond dust and acrylic paint on canvas

Punk

Lips taken from Pop image in black and pink on yellow

The artist as Elvis in triple print in black on white

Elvis Triple

The artist as Elvis in triple print in black on white

Appropriations of appropriations, Turk&rsquo;s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol&rsquo;s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist&rsquo;s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk&rsquo;s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol&rsquo;s &ldquo;originals&rdquo;, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Transit Disaster Emerald

Transit

Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish.

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on beige in multiple printAppropriations of appropriations, Turk&rsquo;s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol&rsquo;s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist&rsquo;s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk&rsquo;s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol&rsquo;s &ldquo;originals&rdquo;, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Transit Disaster Beige

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on beige in multiple print

Life scale rusty nail made in bronze appearing to have been hit in the ground at an angle

Figure

Patinated bronze

Trompe L'oeil

Sculpture

Life scale rusty nail made in bronze appearing to have been hit in the ground at an angle

Clay sculpture of a used polystyrene cup

Clay Cup

Clay

Cups

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit van in black diamond on turquoise Appropriations of appropriations, Turk&rsquo;s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol&rsquo;s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist&rsquo;s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk&rsquo;s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol&rsquo;s &ldquo;originals&rdquo;, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Black Diamond Transit Disaster Green/Blue

Vehicles

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit van in black diamond on turquoise

A white chicken egg broken, pieced back together and mounted to paper

Before the Egg Was Round

Egg shell pressed onto paper

Eggs

Work on paper

A white chicken egg broken, pieced back together and mounted to paper

Diamond Transit Disaster Red

Fright Wig Screen Ripped

Silk screen in perpex box

Painting

The artist as Elvis in negative image with painted ground

Small Negative Elvis

The artist as Elvis in negative image with painted ground

A neon observing eye, based on The Observer, which lights up in sequence.

The Observing Eye

Neon glass bulbs

Eyes

Signs

A neon observing eye, based on The Observer, which lights up in sequence.

Turkey Foil

Wax Signed Merlot Damask Napkin

Red wine and wax on damask napkin

Mixed Media

Pop image in life size silkscreen in black on white

White Pop

Icons

Installation info: Hang on wall avoiding direct sunlight, heat and moistureLips taken from Pop image in black and pink on white

White Sneer

Installation info: Hang on wall avoiding direct sunlight, heat and moistureLips taken from Pop image in black and pink on white

Identity

Installation info: Hang on wall avoiding direct sunlight, heat and moisture Lips taken from Pop image in black and pink on white

Brick

Oil stick on somerset paper

The Metamorphosis of Narcissus

Digital print on paper

Art History

Photographic Work

Gavin Turk (Red Biro)

Biro on paper, mounted on canvas

Signatures

Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Negative Transit Disaster on Blue

Common

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on whiteAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Transit Disaster Black on White

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on whiteAppropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers. Except, rather than an American car, the vehicle in question in Turk’s work is the iconic white van, symbol of a certain white working class Britishness, now dying its own kind of slow death, as the UK moves into a post-industrial, multi-cultural era, where demand for them is beginning to diminish. Where Warhol’s “originals”, anesthetized violence through multiple reproductions in bright, saturated colours, so the Transit Disaster paintings become abstractions of abstractions, transforming horror into beauty and death into something striking and sexy as the deformed metal of the crashes become textures, patterns and shapes, with the notion of Britishness becoming the ultimate casualty.

Disaster series painting featuring a Transit Van in black on white Appropriations of appropriations, Turk’s Transit Disaster series re-cycles Warhol’s car crash paintings from the Pop Artist’s Death And Disaster series, which in turn were re-cycled from photographs of fatal accidents taken from newspapers.