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Gavin Turk: The Years (solo exhibition to coincide with the publication Gavin Turk [Prestel])

This solo exhibition of twenty-four works by Turk contextualised his career to date, combining pieces from 1990 onwards with new works that dwelt on the relationship of his work to other artists, their processes and to issues of authorship. In particular, the working methods and processes of Lucio Fontana and Michelangelo Pistoletto were explored, appropriated and integrated into works such Pistoletto’s Rubbish (2013), which brought together the polished surfaces associated with the Italian artist’s work and a silkscreened reference to Turk’s well-known bin bag sculptures with the intention of cutting to the heart of the question of how and why we value art. The questioning of concepts of value and significance in relationship to artists and their careers was a thread of enquiry that ran throughout this exhibition, as seen in Turk’s self-referencing in works such as Triple Pop Black and White (2011) and The Nubians of Plutonia (2009), in which Turk appropriated Pollock’s action painting oeuvre and subverted it by dripping his own name on to the canvas again and again to build up an ‘abstract’ image.

The exhibition was timed to complement the publication of a monograph published by Prestel in 2013 (Gavin Turk, ISBN 978-3791348346). Assembled under the artist’s direction, this first major book on the work of Gavin Turk showcases more than two decades of his work, and includes two essays, one authored by Judith Collins, and one by Iain Sinclair whose essay contextualizes the artist’s work under the umbrella of psycho-geography, including the impact of London on Turk’s persona. Including 450 illustrations, with images of work ranging from Cave (1991) to ‘Transit Compression’ (2012), the monograph presents a significant overview of Turk’s installations, sculptures, and images which refer to issues of authorship, authenticity, and identity and toy with the art-historical establishment. http://gavinturk.com/exhibitions/show/10332/