A new body of work by Cathy Wilkes, created especially for The British Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale, has been unveiled.
Consisting of a series of floor-bound sculptural installations as well as paintings and prints, the exhibition offers a meditation on ‘the nature of love and the coexistence of life and death’.
All of the works in the British Pavilion, which was curated by Dr Zoe Whitley, are untitled. Whitley, senior curator at Hayward Gallery, said that working with Wilkes “has been enlightening”.
She added: “I respect her uncompromising vision as an artist even more profoundly, having witnessed the creation of this ambitious and deeply felt body of work as it was taking shape. With an acute sensitivity to colour, composition and object placement, Cathy has truly transformed the British Pavilion.”
Emma Dexter, commissioner of the British Pavilion and director of visual arts at the British Council, said of Wilkes: “Her distinctive and highly personal sculptural installations evoke everyday rituals, while alluding to existential questions at the core of human existence, triggering complex new meanings and atmospherics within the grand domestic architecture of the British Pavilion.”
The Glasgow-based artist, who was born in Northern Ireland, was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2008. She also represented Scotland at the 51st International Art Exhibition, in 2005, as part of the exhibition ‘Selective Memory’.
In 2017, she was the inaugural recipient of the Maria Lassnig Prize, which resulted in the largest solo exhibition of her work to date taking place at MoMA PS1, New York 22 October, 2017 – 11 March 2018.
The Venice Biennale 2019 runs from 11 May to 24 November 2019. www.labiennale.org
Images:
1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7. Cathy Wilkes, Untitled, 2019 (detail), Mixed Media, Dimensions variable, Installation view, Cathy Wilkes, British Pavilion, Biennale Arte, Venice, 2019. Photo: Cristiano Corte © British Council; Courtesy: the Artist, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels
5. Cathy Wilkes, Untitled, 2019 (detail), Mixed Media, Dimensions variable. Photo: Cristiano Corte © British Council; Courtesy: the Artist, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels
8. Cathy Wilkes Untitled, 2019, Egg tempera on linen, 66.4 x 76 x 1.8 cm 26.1 x 29.9 x 0.7 in. Photo: Cristiano Corte © British Council; Courtesy: the Artist, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels
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