Galería Javier López is pleased to present a solo exhibition by British artist Liam Gillick (1964, Aylesbury, United Kingdom). The installation will be shown in Jose Marañón 4, the new galleries’ space. The show coincides with the celebration of ARCO'04, the contemporary art fair in Madrid.
Gillick, whose overwhelming production includes a large bibliography of critical essays, operates in the open terrain which he shared with other artists of his generation - Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Philippe Parreno, Jorge Pardo, Rirkrit Tiravanija or Xavier Veilhan - in which the principal sociocultural references make themselves present within a body of artistic work minimalist and conceptual roots. Gillick’s colored Plexiglass screens or modular units framed in aluminium and termed “Discussion Islands” instantly recalled Donald Judd’s primary structures. Like many of Judd’s constructions, Gillick’s objects hold a complex relation between sculpture, furniture and architectural elements. The show presents Gillick’s texts and wall drawings reminiscent of the practice of artists like Sol LeWitt, in which the work intervenes in the space directly. Gillick’s work essentially acknowledges the way in which different properties of materials, structures and colour can affect our surrounding and therefore influence the way we behave. Further, in his intervention in architectural site-specific spaces - in galleries as well as private and public spaces (such as airports or public squares), Gillick always encourages the viewer to negotiate, experiment and to question in different ways the atmospheres he creates.
This exhibition anticipates the artist’s forthcoming publication, titled “Construction of One.” Gillick has produced an installation piece made up of ideas from this new project for his second show at the galleries’ space.
Finalist of the Turner Prize in 2003 and recipient of the first commission to produce a public installation to launch the new sculpture court at the Tate Modern in London (that he titled “Annlee You Proposes.)” During these last years Gillick has participated in numerous collective exhibitions, amongst them are: Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, Documenta X in Kassel, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Le Magasin in Grenoble, ICA in London and the latest Venice Biennale. Highlights of his solo exhibitions, include those organized by: The Museum of Modern Art in New York, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hayward Gallery in London and Le Consortium in Dijon. In Spain, his public sculptural projects include installations in Alcobendas and Villajoyosa (Alicante).
