Gavin Turk

Gavin Turk
Photograph by Pete Millson, 2nd July 2001
Born	1967 Guildford, England
Nationality	British
Website
http://www.gavinturk.com

Gavin Turk (born 1967) is a British artist, and is considered to be one of the Young British Artists.^[1] Turk’s oeuvre deals with issues of authenticity and identity, engaged with modernist and avant-garde debates surrounding the ‘myth’ of the artist and the ‘authorship’ of a work of art.

Life and Work

Education

Turk studied at Chelsea School of Art from 1986 - 1989, and at the Royal College of Art from 1989 - 1991.

Cave

In 1991, tutors at the Royal College of Art refused to present Gavin Turk with his postgraduate degree, a decision based on his graduation exhibition. Titled Cave, it consisted of a whitewashed studio space, containing a blue heritage plaque (of the kind normally found on historic buildings) commemorating his own presence as a sculptor, stating "Gavin Turk worked here, 1989-1991". This bestowed some instant notoriety on Turk, whose work was collected by numerous collectors including Charles Saatchi, who later exhibited Turk's work in the exhibition Sensation (art exhibition), which toured London (Royal Academy of Arts), Berlin (Hamburger Bahnhof) and New York (Brooklyn Museum). Turk attended the private view of the Sensation exhibition at the Royal Academy, dressed as a down-and-out.

He has subsequently produced an extensive body of work, which questions the value and integrity of a hermetic artistic identity.^[2]

Waxworks

Turk's wide ranging practice often incorporates iconic images of figures taken from popular culture and art historical sources. A series of detailed life-sized waxworks, incorporating the artists own appearance, features the artist assuming various poses as different characters, including Sid Vicious, Jean-Paul Marat and the Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara. Turk's most famous work in this series, Pop (1993) is a waxwork of Turk as Sid Vicious. The work appropriates the stance of Andy Warhol's screen print of Elvis Presley. In the work, the right hand is pointing a gun, a motif which recurs in other works in the series, such as Bum (1998).

Turk has also appropriated recognisable elements from other artists such as Jacques-Louis David, Yves Klein, Marcel Duchamp, Andy Warhol, René Magritte, Alighiero Boetti, Robert Morris (artist) and Jasper Johns.

Painted Bronze

A series of three-dimensional Trompe-l'œil works includes objects cast into bronze, painted to give the appearance of the original object. Possibly his most revered works, these include bronze sculptures of plastic rubbish bags, see "Bag" (2000). Other sculptures include "Nomad" (2002), a bronze cast of a sleeping bag, and Box (2002), which resembles a cardboard box. Turk is perhaps the leading exponent of the painted bronze, and has cast objects from spent matches to worn paving slabs to discarded vehicle exhaust pipes.

Millennium Dome

A set of what appeared to be classic posters of Che Guevara in a beret, revealed themselves on further scrutiny to be photos of Turk himself. Turk alleged that the management of London's (now defunct) Millennium Dome refused to display his Che Gavara (sic) sculpture, for fear of offending arms-manufacturing Dome sponsor BAe/Marconi (however a correspondent in Art Monthly magazine pointed out that work by the highly political left-wing cartoonist Ralph Steadman was being exhibited in the Dome at the same time).

Revolting Brick

In December 2009, Turk took part in the "Bricks" exhibition at Area 10 in Peckham in Southeast London. However, the day before the exhibition was to start, organizers noticed that his piece entitled "Revolting Brick" had been stolen and replaced with a fake brick. The fake brick held the words "Thank You Have a Nice Day, Next" and was part of a set of 500 that was given away at the exhibition. "Revolting Brick" was number eight in a series of ten that Turk had created and signed. The artist stated that he "was upset but flattered" at what had happened and that the theft "raises questions about value and worth".^[3]

Public Sculpture

In May 2011, Turk's first large-scale, 12 metre public sculpture was unveiled between the One New Change City mall, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel, and St Paul's Cathedral.

Solo Exhibitions

Gavin Turk has exhibited widely internationally. His solo exhibitions include 'L’Amour Fou', David Nolan Gallery, New York, USA (2013), 'Türk', Galerist, Istanbul, Turkey (2012), 'Gavin & Turk', Ben Brown Gallery, London (2013), 'Jack Shit!', Aeroplastics, Brussels, Belgium (2011), 'Before The World Was Round', Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria (2011) and 'En Face', Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France (2010), 'The Mirror Stage', Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa (2009),^[4] 'Burnt Out', Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland (2008), 'Piss Off', Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria (2008) and 'Negotiation of Purpose', GEM Museum for Contemporary Art, The Hague, Netherlands (2007). Additionally, Turk has had solo exhibitions at Sean Kelly Gallery, New York (2005), the New Art Centre Sculpture Park and Gallery, Salisbury, England (2003), the New Art Gallery in Walsall, England (2002), and “The Stuff Show” at South London Gallery (1998).^[5]

Group Exhibitions

Recent group exhibitions include 'Street', New Art gallery Walsall (2012), 'Made in Britain: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection', Sichuan (2012), 'Deja-vu? The Art of Copying from Dürer to You Tube', Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Germany (2012), 'Twenty', Aurel Scheibler, Berlin, Germany (2012), 'The Art of Chess', Bendigo Gallery; University of Queensland Art Museum, Australia (2012), 'Identity Theft', Mimmo scognamiglio Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy (2010), 'Pop Life: Art in a Material World', Tate Modern, London (2009), 'The Third Dimension, Whitechapel Art Gallery', London (2009), 'DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture', Tate Liverpool, Liverpool (2009), Turk has also been involved in "teach-in" events such as "The Che Gavara (sic) Story" (2001).^[6]

The House of Fairy Tales

In 2007, Turk established The House of Fairy Tales with his partner Deborah Curtis, a children's arts charity based in London, that brings together hundreds of artists, performers, actors, writers and philosophers to deliver theatrical events, guides and exhibitions. The project continues to further community education projects based around, supported by, and advocating art. The House of Fairy Tales tour the country in a mobile gallery horse box which made its festival debut at the 2008 Crunch festival in Hay-on-Wye. In 2009, they appeared at the Glastonbury Festival.^[7] In the summer of 2009, The House of Fairy Tales also staged The Long Weekend, a pop-up festival for all ages, hosted by Tate Modern.

Awards

In 2001, Turk was awarded the Jack Goldhill Sculpture Prize for his work 'Bag' (2000) by the Royal Academy of Arts, London, who in 2007 also awarded him the Charles Wollaston award for his work 'Dumb Candle' (2007), a carving of a candle made from the top of an old broom handle.

Professorship

Gavin Turk was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Arts, University of East London in 2010. Since 2012 Turk has held the post of Professor of Art and Design at Bath Spa University.^[8]

Notes and references

External links

• The Official Site for Gavin Turk
• The Official Site for The House of Fairy Tales
• Clippings from an interview by David Barrett
• Gavin Turk at Sculpture.org.uk
• BAe/Marconi and the Millennium Dome
• Video of panel debate with Gavin Turk
• Gavin Turk talks to www.theartnewspaper.tv about Duck Rabbit at Frieze 2009
• Gavin Turk on BBC4, discussing the impact of Charles Saatchi on the modern art world
• Gavin Turk discussing The House of Fairy Tales with the Guardian newspaper
• Gavin Turk Transit Disaster at Paul Stolper Gallery, London 2012

Authority control VIAF: 59004290 ISNI: 0000 0001 2211 5093 BNF: cb16600201x

Persondata
Name	Turk, Gavin
Alternative names
Short description	British artist
Date of birth	1967
Place of birth	Guildford, Surrey
Date of death
Place of death