The exhibition brings together 250 works by 110 artists from China, the Former Soviet Union, Taiwan, the UK and the USA in a comprehensive survey celebrating Pop Art's legacy. Post Pop: East Meets West examines why of all the twentieth century's art movements, Pop Art has had such a powerful influence over artists from world regions that have had very different and sometimes opposing ideologies. The exhibition celebrates the art being produced in these four distinct regions since the heyday of Pop, and presents them in relation to each other through the framework of six themes: Habitat; Advertising and Consumerism; Celebrity and Mass Media; Art History; Religion and Ideology; Sex and the Body. Widely regarded as the most significant art movement of the last century, Pop Art exploited identifiable imagery from mass media and everyday life to reflect on the nature of the world we live in. This exhibition examines the relationship between western Pop Art and its lesser-known eastern counterparts including &quot;Sots Art&quot; in the Soviet Union and &quot;Political-Pop&quot; or &quot;Cynical Realism&quot;, which has flourished in Greater China since the turn of the twenty-first century.

Post Pop: East Meets West

The exhibition brings together 250 works by 110 artists from China, the Former Soviet Union, Taiwan, the UK and the USA in a comprehensive survey celebrating Pop Art's legacy. Post Pop: East Meets West examines why of all the twentieth century's art movements, Pop Art has had such a powerful influence over artists from world regions that have had very different and sometimes opposing ideologies.

Here Today&hellip; is in support of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. With over 50 internationally-celebrated artists and emerging thinkers, Here Today&hellip; dares to challenge common perceptions, and empowers visitors to instigate massive change through a programme of events, talks and workshops inspired by this exhibition. The exhibition will tour globally to keep spreading the word.Here Today&hellip; is curated by Artwise and supported by Baku Magazine.

Here Today - IUCN Endangered Species Fundraiser

Here Today… is in support of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. With over 50 internationally-celebrated artists and emerging thinkers, Here Today… dares to challenge common perceptions, and empowers visitors to instigate massive change through a programme of events, talks and workshops inspired by this exhibition. The exhibition will tour globally to keep spreading the word.Here Today… is curated by Artwise and supported by Baku Magazine.

We Are One brought together many of Turk’s neon works, signature pieces made between 1995 and 2013, which show the evolution of his practice, quite literally, in lights; their glow, suitably enough for Turk, has the aura of consumer fetish, celebrity and glamour. 

Turk often co-opts and transforms original meaning and many of his neon works turn everyday objects into luminous symbols. Hence a banana and a lobster channel the spirit of Warhol and Duchamp, in order to create Turk's own-brand logos.

Visually reduced to minimal typographies, other works offer signs of communication in its simplest form: a seeing eye, a flickering flame, primordial hieroglyphs, with their ancient mysteries and secrets, evolved to modern day usage.

We Are One

We Are One brought together many of Turk’s neon works, signature pieces made between 1995 and 2013, which show the evolution of his practice, quite literally, in lights; their glow, suitably enough for Turk, has the aura of consumer fetish, celebrity and glamour.

On 13 September 2014, Ben Brown Fine Arts Hong Kong opened the first solo exhibition of works by Gavin Turk in Asia. The highly acclaimed British artist brought together a varied selection from his iconic and provocative oeuvre. The exhibition included a trompe l’oeil sculpture, a room of neon works, and a room dedicated to his ‘after’ Warhol series.

Inspired by a visit to Hong Kong, Turk had created a Styrofoam box sculpture especially for the exhibition, adding to his infamous trompe l’oeil sculpture series in which he would cast a substantial bronze sculpture from a seemingly ephemeral object and then paint it to further obfuscate the true materiality of the piece. In this case, Turk chose a polystyrene container commonly used to transport fish in Hong Kong’s wet markets, thus elevating a familiarly banal object to an undeniably significant piece of art, pushing the viewer to take notice of the form and function of the object.

The gallery’s project room was transformed into a neon installation space with arresting pieces such as Port (Yellow) (2012), The Observing Eye (2012), and One Twenty Five (2013). Turk’s investigations through neon address consumerism, celebrity, propaganda and spectacle while referencing the iconography of 20th century masters such as René Magritte, Marcel Duchamp and Andy Warhol. Another room of the gallery was dedicated to Turk’s ‘after’ Warhol series in which he appropriates iconic Warhol imagery, typically inserting himself as the subject, and employs the same silkscreen process as the revered artist. 

The exhibition ran concurrently with a solo exhibition of Turk’s neon works that opened at the Bowes Museum in England, County Durham; before travelling to the New Art Centre, Roche Court; and Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool.

On 13 September 2014, Ben Brown Fine Arts Hong Kong opened the first solo exhibition of works by Gavin Turk in Asia. The highly acclaimed British artist brought together a varied selection from his iconic and provocative oeuvre. The exhibition included a trompe l’oeil sculpture, a room of neon works, and a room dedicated to his ‘after’ Warhol series.

Liqueur D’Expedition, which opened at Christian Larsen, was Gavin Turk’s first solo exhibition in Sweden. The phrase refers to a small amount of sweet and alcoholic liquid added to a champagne bottle after the “lees”, or sediment, has been disgorged. 

There is no definitive English translation, but a direct reading would make "a sweet tincture from an exploration". The amount of sugar in liquer d’expedition determines the degree of sweetness in the champagne and gives the drink its final character. In this sense, liquer d’expedition could be understood as a metaphor for Turk’s oeuvre: a decades long comment on the role of art, a sweet additive that tops up the cultural bottle and gives the period its own distinct flavour. 

The exhibition included a combination of sculpture, photography and paintings, highlighting the diversity of Turk’s artistic expression. Nothing is more revealing of a time and a place than its cultural icons and its rubbish. Turk recycles it all, from art history and pop culture to plain rubbish such as old tyres and plastic garbage bags. He re-interprets Warhol by inserting himself into his iconic images, while at the same time elevating an apple core to the sublime status of a precious art object in a masterly executed bronze sculpture.

Liqueur D'Expédition

Liqueur D’Expedition, which opened at Christian Larsen, was Gavin Turk’s first solo exhibition in Sweden. The phrase refers to a small amount of sweet and alcoholic liquid added to a champagne bottle after the “lees”, or sediment, has been disgorged.

Gavin Turk joins other Bath Spa University Professors, Readers and Research Fellows and transform the table in the Davidson Ballroom Gallery to create an intervention that addresses this year's theme Ideas for Life. Futurekammer also builds on the University's recent Wunderkammer publication, Artists Work in Museums: Histories, Interventions, Subjectives

Futurekammer (2)

Gavin Turk joins other Bath Spa University Professors, Readers and Research Fellows and transform the table in the Davidson Ballroom Gallery to create an intervention that addresses this year's theme Ideas for Life. Futurekammer also builds on the University's recent Wunderkammer publication, Artists Work in Museums: Histories, Interventions, Subjectives

Futurekammer

LARMgalleri presents Turk’s first solo-exhibition in Denmark

Pense Bête

LARMgalleri presents Turk’s first solo-exhibition in Denmark

As early as the 1910s, magazines set aside column inches for the celebrities of the day, and published photographs of stars caught unwittingly on film. A century after the illustrated press was at its most popular, and in an age when gossip magazines are a thriving industry, the &quot;paparazzi phenomenon&quot; is the subject of an unprecedented exhibition at Centre Pompidou-Metz.The figure of the &quot;paparazzi&quot; was invented by Federico Fellini in his 1960 film, La Dolce Vita, the term being a contraction of &quot;pappataci&quot; (mosquitoes) and &quot;ragazzi&quot; (ruffians). Thus the practice of tracking celebrities in the hope of a candid shot has been around for half a century.By associating the profession's foremost representatives with artists whose work questions this modern myth, Paparazzi! sets out to define a paparazzi aesthetic.Through some 700 works and documents, the exhibition examines the complex relationship between the &quot;image hunter&quot; and the star &ndash; who can be an innocent victim as much as an accomplice, even dictating the conditions for their own media fame &ndash; and reveals how today's fashion shoots bear the hallmarks of paparazzi style.Visitors will come eye-to-eye with half a century of photographs of stars, spread over more than 1,000 square metres.A catalogue will accompany the exhibition.

Paparazzi - Photographers, stars and artists

As early as the 1910s, magazines set aside column inches for the celebrities of the day, and published photographs of stars caught unwittingly on film. A century after the illustrated press was at its most popular, and in an age when gossip magazines are a thriving industry, the "paparazzi phenomenon" is the subject of an unprecedented exhibition at Centre Pompidou-Metz.

Patricia Low Gallery is pleased to announce the group exhibition &ldquo;Sculpture Show&rdquo; presenting a selection of 11 works by internationally acclaimed European and American artists.John Chamberlain, George Condo, Wim Delvoye, Sylvie Fleury, Damien Hirst, Anselm Reyle, Oscar Tuazon, Gavin Turk, Franz West, Erwin Wurm.

Sculpture Show

Patricia Low Gallery is pleased to announce the group exhibition “Sculpture Show” presenting a selection of 11 works by internationally acclaimed European and American artists.John Chamberlain, George Condo, Wim Delvoye, Sylvie Fleury, Damien Hirst, Anselm Reyle, Oscar Tuazon, Gavin Turk, Franz West, Erwin Wurm.

For its thirteenth exhibition, Frances Foundation invited artist Gavin Turk to engage in dialogue with works from the collection. Through painting and sculpture, Gavin Turk recycle the work of his predecessors, icons of modern art. He plays with the history of art, revisits its codes, questions the myth of the artist and, more broadly, the way of life in our society.

Gavin Turk puts the subject at the heart of his research, whether it is a work of Pop Art or a trash bag. By making cups or sleeping bags painted bronze, Turk ruffles the concepts of value and waste, positioning himself as a witness to culture, to an era, a trace left by man.

This exhibition raised questions about the place we leave these residues of humanity, whether material or human. Residues from the history of art or our contemporary lives, who find themselves recycled, transformed and reinvented by contemporary artists.

The exhibition referred to the documentary by Brazilian artist Vik Muniz, Waste Land (2011), set in Jardim Gramacho, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro and one of the largest landfills in the world. The artist makes the "catadores" (waste sorters) the heroes of famous paintings such as The Death of Marat by Jacques Louis David (1794), in scenes composed from objects and materials from the dump.

The recycling of these remnants of humanity brings value to what no longer has any, brings to the forefront men and objects that we ignore and gives meaning to what is excluded. These contemporary works deal with the abandonment of a man or an object, the abandonment of oneself.

The dialogue engages with works from the collection, such as Roger Ballen, Guillaume Bresson, Jake and Dinos Chapman, Subodh Gupta, Sophie Kuijken, Jean Revillard and Florian Süssmayr.

Vestige

For its thirteenth exhibition, Frances Foundation invited artist Gavin Turk to engage in dialogue with works from the collection. Through painting and sculpture, Gavin Turk recycle the work of his predecessors, icons of modern art. He plays with the history of art, revisits its codes, questions the myth of the artist and, more broadly, the way of life in our society.

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 (Phoenix Art Museum)

The title of the exhibition (which we will spare you from reading again) is the exact number of people alive on Planet Earth at the precise moment the show opened on January 24, 2014. His large-scale neon light work broadcast the number on The Bowes’s iconic chateau-style façade.

The Bowes Museum was a fitting setting for Turk’s collection of neon works: its permanent display of decorative and fine arts from the Bronze Age to the 20th century records not only cultural history, but its understanding through technological advancement. 

The exhibition was the first time Turk’s entire collection of neon works had been brought together. Signature pieces made between 1995 and 2013 lit up the Bowes Museum’s main gallery with their effervescent glow.

Visually reduced to minimal typographies, the luminous beacons represent communication in its barest form: an egg, a banana, a lobster – the spirit-presence of Magritte, Warhol, Duchamp, art’s magical essence distilled as channelled gas, hyper-efficiently packaged as Turk’s own-brand logos.

Two pieces in the exhibition held special significance: a red star, made in conjunction with Turk’s Che Gavara series, is a replica of the signage on the façade of Turk’s Hackney Wick London studio; and an eight-pointed Maltese cross, a symbol dating back to the First Crusade and one that similarly intrigued Yves Klein.

Seven Billion Two Hundred and One Million Nine Hundred and Sixty-Four Thousand and Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight

The title of the exhibition (which we will spare you from reading again) is the exact number of people alive on Planet Earth at the precise moment the show opened on January 24, 2014. His large-scale neon light work broadcast the number on The Bowes’s iconic chateau-style façade.

On a recent visit to South Africa to attend the exhibition of South African born, British artist Helen A Pritchard at SMAC Art Gallery in Cape Town, Keith Coventry was impressed by the local art scene and the interest shown towards contemporary British art, in particular the so-called YBA (Young British Artists) generation, amongst whom Coventry was a central figure. Coventry suggested presenting and curating (together with Pritchard) an exhibition of works on paper by some of his artist friends from the UK. The show contains work by many of the important YBAs, as well as younger artists from the current generation, including three Turner Prize winners and many well-publicized and controversial Turner Prize nominees. A spirit of generosity from the curators and the participating artists underpins this exhibition that explores the often overlooked qualities of art produced on paper.Paper evokes history and the documentation thereof, in this context, the complicated history between South Africa and the UK. Gavin Turk's simple and characteristically piercing work entitled 100 Years (2014), a century-old piece of paper bearing the handwritten inscription, &quot;100 year-old piece of paper&quot;, speaks a thousand words; commenting on the transience of things, the relative insignificance of recent history or perhaps its dire consequences which predicts an impending 'cleaning of the slate'.Paper itself has the unique characteristic of outlasting most other art forms &ndash; especially technology based work or seemingly enduring contemporary trends. Paper has for centuries been the principal mode of written communication between people, but in recent times it has come to represent a uniquely personalized form of communication &ndash; an idea encapsulated perfectly in Tracy Emin's monoprint on personalized stationary. Paper is also at the heart of the current environmental debate and is an integral part of the concept behind the work of Simon English, who works primarily in this medium to convey his environmental concerns, as do the delicate works of mud on paper by acclaimed Land Artist Richard Long. Helen A Pritchard's framing of cardboard cut-outs from commercial packaging hints at similar concerns, whilst referencing important art historical moments ranging from Neo Baroque to Arte Povera, Minimalism, Geometric Abstraction and Pop Art.In the nineties, the YBAs and 'Britart' catapulted contemporary art into a new realm and broke boundaries, expanding the reach of the previously insular and isolated world of contemporary art. Art and celebrity culture became synonymous.The radical, alternative and sensationalist quality whereby these artists rose to prominence became a global cultural phenomena and aligned them with pop musicians (such as Jarvis Cocker &amp; Oasis) and fashion designers (Alexander McQueen &amp; Stella McCartney). The free, rebellious spirit of the time is embodied in Keith Coventry's work, Two Girls Smoking Crack (2001) and Sophy Rickett's iconic photographs of herself urinating, whilst standing and in a stereotypical male posture, on modern political landmarks such as the MI5 building.Despite a historic slant (the show spans more or less two decades), it also includes fresh and exciting new works such as a labyrinth drawing by Turner Prize winner Mark Wallinger, who has just been commissioned to produce 270 monumental public works on this theme to be placed permanently in various locations on the London Underground. Further examples include a large, elaborate and typically colourful mixed media work by Keith Tyson (another Turner Prize winner) and two delicate collage works of autumn leaf shaped cut-outs of pages from pornographic magazines by Jonathan Yeo, who recently presented a major exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London. These and other works make this exhibition very current and as much about the 'now', as about recent history.The relative ease with which an exhibition of this stature was organized attests to another characteristic of the medium, namely its portability. Paper is light and easy to transport, it is also easy to work on outside of the studio. Many of the works on show might be interpreted as unfinished, rough or unpolished in contrast to how some of the more well-known and iconic works by these artists have been publicized. These 'sketches' reveal unexpected aspects of the thought process and general process behind these artists and their practice&ndash; a type of behind-the scenes, private view into their world. The personal nature of this exhibition extends beyond the relationships between the curators and the artists, to a broader collective intent to engage with a specific place. There is a sense of goodwill towards the idea of sharing and reaching out to the South African audience.This exhibition allows Capetonians and art students the unique opportunity to engage with the works (and minds) of these renowned international artists, in an intimate, personal and direct way.PAPER Features: James Birch, Mat Collishaw, Nigel Cooke, Keith Coventry, Gabriella Daris, Tracey Emin, Simon English, Barnaby Hosking, Henry Hudson, Bridget Hugo Ricca Kawai Kalderon, Michael Landy, Richard Long, Jason Martin, Paul Noble, Tim Noble &amp; Sue Webster, Helen A Pritchard, Simon Popper, Barry Reigate, Sophy Rickett, Liam Ryan, Jemima Stehli, Gavin Turk, Keith Tyson, Mark Wallinger, Greville Worthington and Jonathan Yeo.

Paper

On a recent visit to South Africa to attend the exhibition of South African born, British artist Helen A Pritchard at SMAC Art Gallery in Cape Town, Keith Coventry was impressed by the local art scene and the interest shown towards contemporary British art, in particular the so-called YBA (Young British Artists) generation, amongst whom Coventry was a central figure. Coventry suggested presenting and curating (together with Pritchard) an exhibition of works on paper by some of his artist friends from the UK.