Serpentine Gallery
Kensington Gardens
020 7402 6075
London
Rebecca Warren
10 March-19 April 2009
Rebecca Warren (born 1965) is known internationally for her exuberant, roughly-worked clay sculptures, bronzes and vitrines containing carefully assembled objects that the artist has collected.
The artist challenges sculptural conventions while also engaging with the history of figurative sculpture and her position within this predominantly male tradition. Warren’s shape-shifting sculptures in clay and bronze range from amorphous to more recognisable forms, which are sometimes sexually explicit, embracing both the formal and the grotesque.
Rebecca Warren says of her work: "Though my work evolves through a process of appropriation and reference, it is non-didactic, being closer to revelation and discovery."
Work from throughout Warren’s career is presented at the Gallery. The display reflects the breadth and variety of her practice, featuring sculptures in clay and bronze, a selection of her vitrines, a series of Husbands — wall-based mixed media sculptures — as well as a group of new works made specially for the exhibition.
Rebecca Warren lives and works in London. She was nominated for the Turner Prize 2006 at Tate Britain and the Vincent Award 2008 at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Her work was also the subject of a solo exhibition at Kunsthalle Zürich in 2004. This exhibition at the Serpentine Gallery is the first major solo survey of her work in a UK public gallery.
Rebecca Warren’s past work has been received to critical acclaim:
Turner prize nominee Rebecca Warren... is no pasticher of the past, but an original and formidable talent: the truest artist the Turner has uncovered in years.
— The Guardian
Warren’s works show us the female body as something that has been violently manipulated into being, not so much smooththumbed, honed and chiselled as half-botched and half-bashed into existence.
— The Times
With historical conviction behind her, Warren brilliantly combines formal virtuosity with cartoon fantasies, something of the aggression and humour of Sarah Lucas, a grotesquerie going back to expressionism, and a pitch-perfect sensitivity to the issues of flesh, fat and femininity.
— Financial Times |
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Rebecca Warren, Husband Three and Husband Four, 2005, Mixed media, neon and transformers, Dimensions variable, Courtesy of Maureen Paley, London, © 2009 Rebecca Warren.
Rebecca Warren, We Are Dead IV, 2008, Acrylic painted unfired clay with steel armature on MDF base on painted MDF weighted plinth, Artwork: 79 x 45.5 x 31 cm, Plinth: 88 x 48.5 x 34.5 cm, Courtesy of Matthew Marks Gallery, New York, © 2009 Rebecca Warren. |
