Liam Gillick

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Local Discussion Screen, 2001-02, by Liam Gillick
Local Discussion Screen, 2001-02, by Liam Gillick

Liam Gillick (born 1964, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) is a British artist living and working in New York and London.

Often associated with the Young British Artists movement and the theory of Relational Aesthetics, Gillick's unique practice is not limited to categorization. As artist, critic, curator, designer, and writer, his work includes: public projects, critical and theoretical writings, design objects and graphic materials, films, musical scores, and fine artworks. Central to this multidimensional practice is the artist's ongoing research of past and present evaluations of the aesthetics of social systems with a focus on modes of production rather than consumption. Through his own writings and the use of specific materials in his artworks, Gillick examines how the built world carries traces of social, political and economic systems.

"Artists such as Liam Gillick...no longer address abstraction as the principle for the creation of distinct minimalist objects, but rather try to create through design spaces for open social interaction, whose actual use is to be constantly redefined within the situation of the exhibition - without necessarily producing relational-aesthetic models of community."[1]


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[edit] Life and work

Liam Gillick graduated from Goldsmiths College in 1987. In 1989 he mounted his first solo gallery exhibition, "84 Diagrams" at the infamous, former gallery - Karsten Shubert Ltd., in London. Since then, Gillick has played a crucial role in the contemporary art scene. He has exhibited in galleries and institutions across Europe and the United States, and he consistently collaborates with other artists, architects, writers, and designers of all generations. Gillick currently exhibits with Casey Kaplan, NY; Corvi Mora, London; Air de Paris, Paris; Esther Schipper Galerie, Berlin; Galerie Micheline Szwajcer, Antwerp; and Meyer Kainer, Vienna.

In May 2002, he had a major exhibition in London, The Wood Way at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. This featured work made since the mid-1990s and in particular two series, The What if? Scenario and Discussion Island/Big Conference Centre... The title of the show refers to the German expression "Holzweg"— taking the "wood way" means taking the wrong turn and getting lost in woods. The ground floor of the Whitechapel contained a specially constructed labyrinth by Gillick, so "Walking through the exhibition may well feel like taking "The Wood Way" both literally and metaphorically."[2]

In 2002 he was a nominee for the Turner Prize. His display was a mostly empty environment, dominated by a ceiling of brightly-coloured Plexiglas squares with light shining through them.

In 2003 he received a joint commission from London Underground Platform for Art programme and Frieze Art Fair to create a set of posters to be put in unused spaces at Great Portland Street tube station. These have strong single colours and text in simple typography, and were promoted by London Underground:

The work makes use of transcripts of non-specific television advertising – placing the structure of one communication medium into another. The structure of the message overwhelms the product and we are left to reflect on the potential of narrative and presentation.[3]
oneunitofenergyoneunitofoutput, 2007, by Liam Gillick
oneunitofenergyoneunitofoutput, 2007, by Liam Gillick

A further project for London Underground, announced in January 2007, was the design of the cover for the Underground map, of which 15 million copies are distributed each year. His design, entitled The Day Before (You Know What They'll Call It? They'll Call it the Tube) shows the words of the date of the last day before the Underground opened, written in twelve sets of coloured letters symbolising the twelve rail lines. [4]

Central to his practice has been the publication of a number of books that function in parallel to his built work. The artist has also produced a number of large works in an architectural context.Since 1997 he has been an Adjunct Faculty Member at the School of the Arts, Columbia University, [1], and he has lectured at art schools, universities, and institutions across the USA and Europe.

Liam Gillick is nominated for the 2008 Vincent Award at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and will create a major new body of work for the forthcoming Guggenheim exhibition ‘theanyspacewhatever’ in October 2008. In January of 2008, the artist’s retrospective, ‘Three perspectives and a Short Scenario’, opened at the Witte de With, Rotterdam and the Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich; it will continue to the Kunstverein München, München in September 2008; and is scheduled to open at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago in October 2009.

He divides his time between London and New York City.

[edit] Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions since 1989 include ‘Literally’, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 2003; ‘Communes, bar and greenrooms’, The Powerplant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, 2003; ‘The Wood Way’, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2002; ‘A short text on the possibility of creating an economy of equivalence’, Palais de Tokyo, 2005.

Group exhibitions include ‘Singular Forms’, Guggenheim Museum, 2004; 50th Venice Biennale, 2003; ‘What If’, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, 2000 and documenta X, 1997.

[edit] Public Projects

1999 BIC Technologiezentrum, Leipzig; 2001 Telenor, Oslo; 2002 Dekabank, Frankfurt; 2002 Alcobendas, Madrid; 2002 Kirchdorf School; 2002 Mercat, Alicante; 2002 Olnick Corporation, New Jersey; 2003 Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport; 2003 Regents Place - British Land, London; 2003 Headache, phone card, soda, donuts, stereo, London Underground/Frieze Art Fair, London; 2003-5 The Home Office, London; 2004 Museum in Progress, Rolling Boards, Vienna; 2004 Swiss Re, London; 2005 Dior Homme, Shanghai (with Sean Dack); 2005 BSI, Lugano, Switzerland; 2006 Maharam, Chicago; 2006 Farmont Pacific Rim, Vancouver, Canada; 2007 Anyang Public Art Project, Anyang, Korea; 2007 Lufthansa Aviation Center, Frankfurt, Germany

[edit] Books

Since 1995 Liam Gillick has published a number of books that function in parallel to his artwork including Literally No Place (Book Works, London, 2002); Five or Six (Lukas & Sternberg, New York, 1999); Discussion Island/Big Conference Centre (Kunstverein Ludwigsburg, Ludwigsburg, and Orchard Gallery, Derry, 1997), Erasmus is Late (Book Works, London, 1995); PROXEMICS: SELECTED WRITINGS 1988–2006 (JRP|Ringier, Zurich, 2007); and most recently factories in the snow, edited by Lilian Haberer and Liam Gillick, (JRP|Ringier, Zurich, 2007).

[edit] Critical Writing

Liam Gillick has contributed to many art magazines and journals including Artforum, Parkett, Frieze, Art Monthly and October.

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes and references

  1. ^ Blom, Ina, "THE LOGIC OF THE TRAILER Abstraction, Style, and Sociality in Contemporary Art," Texte Zur Kunst, March 2008, Issue 69, p. 171 - 177
  2. ^ Whitechapel Art Gallery Retrieved March 23, 2006
  3. ^ "headache/phone card/soda/donuts/stereo" tfl.gov.uk. Accessed April 16, 2006
  4. ^ London Underground press release tfl.gov.uk. Accessed 23 January 2007

[edit] External links

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