Press Contact: Gemma Colgan [email protected] +44 (0)20 7439 1866
EXHIBITION INFORMATION
Cornelia Parker 12 October – 14 November 2015 Private view Saturday 17 October, 10 am - 12 pm
Cornelia Parker is fascinated by the physical properties of objects and materials, and their histories. For her first solo exhibition at Alan Cristea Gallery, on public display from 12 October – 7 November 2015, Parker will present three new bodies of work that breathe new life into found objects, exploring ideas of the positive versus negative, and the compression of three-dimensional objects into the two- dimensional. Parker’s art is about destruction, resurrection and reconfiguration. Demonstrating the importance of process, she frequently transforms objects by using seemingly violent techniques such as shooting, exploding, squashing, cutting and burning. Through these actions she both physically alters the object and she herself becomes an active participant in the development of its story.
For her first series of new work Parker uses the photogravure process. Inspired by Fox Talbots’ first photographic images, she placed ordinary objects directly on to a plate, exposing them to ultra violet light, so that they act as a photographic positive. A light bulb, a gun, a glass spilling ice cubes, a Halloween banner (pictured), become spectral still lifes captured on paper. Their volume is described by their ability to blot out or refract light; they become literal shadows of their former selves.
Parker continues this exploration, in another series of new prints, using a group of found glass photographic negatives of silverware, originally produced for a 1960’s Spink auction catalogue. Exposed to the plate in their original glassine bags, the negatives appear as dimensional objects in 1
Press Contact: Gemma Colgan [email protected] +44 (0)20 7439 1866
their own right but trapped in a two dimensional space. Parker has used found objects in her work since the 1980s, and silver has been a material she has been repeatedly drawn to, candelabras and coffee jugs that previously adorned someone’s dining table, now outlive their owners and continue their story through Parker’s interventions. The photogravures of the glass negatives hark back to an early work by Parker titled, Thirty Pieces of Silver, (1988-89), which comprised over a thousand pieces of silver plate flattened by a steamroller and suspended on wires hovering above a gallery floor.
A third and final group of prints by Parker are made up of layers of blots and spatters, created by her spitting a sugar solution directly on to a prepared etching plate. Creating a kind of ‘action’ sugar lift etching, she cross-pollinates the gestures of punk with abstract expressionist techniques. The resulting etchings freeze a moment in time, and the once repellent act of spitting produces abstract forms that are both compelling and beautiful.
The exhibition, located in 34 Cork Street, will be accompanied by a fully illustrated publication, which will include an interview between the artist and Helen Waters. This year the Alan Cristea Gallery is taking part in Frieze West End gallery night, and will open on Thursday 15 October until 8pm.
NOTES
About the artist Cornelia Parker was born in 1956 in Cheshire. She studied at the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design and at Wolverhampton Polytechnic before receiving her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Reading in 1982. Her first major solo exhibition took place at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham in 1988. In 1997 Parker was shortlisted for the Turner Prize. She has had numerous solo exhibition in the UK and internationally, including New York, Boston, Turin, Stuttgart, San Francisco, Melbourne and Lima. Her work is held in many collections, including Tate, London, Museum of Modern of Art, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, De Young Museum, San Francisco, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, The Henry Moore Foundation, Hertfordshire, The British Council, London, and the Whitworth, Manchester. Recently her work was included in the 4th Guangzhou Triennial, China, 3rd Aichi Triennale, Japan, the 55th Venice Biennale and the 10th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea. In 2010 Parker was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts and became an OBE.
A recent installation, One More Time (2015), by Parker and part of the Terrace Wires art programme at St. Pancras International, London, is currently hanging from the iconic roof of the train station. Parker’s Magna Carta (An Embroidery) (2015), which replicates in stitch the entire Wikipedia article on the Great Charter, is touring to the Whitworth, Manchester and Bodleian Library, Oxford.
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Press Contact: Gemma Colgan [email protected] +44 (0)20 7439 1866
About Alan Cristea Gallery
One of the leading commercial contemporary galleries in Europe, the Alan Cristea Gallery is the primary representative for a number of established international contemporary artists, artists’ estates and emerging artists. The gallery opened at 31 Cork Street in 1995 and since then has expanded to a second exhibition space at 34 Cork Street, with both galleries showing a continuous programme of exhibitions including contemporary paintings, works on paper, sculpture and installations. In addition, the gallery is known for its commitment to original prints and editions, commissioning and facilitating innovative projects by outstanding artists, and is the largest publisher of contemporary editions and prints in Europe. Upcoming exhibitions and projects include Richard Hamilton, Idris Khan and Naum Gabo.
The gallery is a member of the International Fine Print Dealers Association.
Visitor information: Mon-Fri 10am-5.30pm, Sat 11am-2pm Travel: Piccadilly, Green Park or Bond Street Tube Station Telephone: +44 (0) 207 439 1866 Email: [email protected] Website: www.alancristea.com
Twitter: @AlanCristea Instagram: @alancristea Facebook: Alan Cristea Gallery
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