Gavin Turk

Gavin Turk's art questions what it means to make art and what it means to be an artist practising today. The art is reflexive and philosophical whilst the playful use of references, materials and imagery charms the audience into joining his academic reverie. The humble object (often not quite what it seems) transformed into a key prop from a bigger stage. Nomad - depicting a tragic figure encased in a sleeping bag hidden from the world - is given a noble title. Immortalised in bronze, far from being a figure of pity, it recalls ancient ancestors or soothsayers. Bronze apple cores given names such as The Mirror Stage bring symbolism into tiny discarded amulets. The myth of Ariadne explored in works such as The Golden Thread - a modernist maze made of vitrine-like cells where the audience becomes lost in the art - becomes the art. His interest in this archetype, this passive female recipient of art histories male gaze is more a metaphor for cultural out-of-focusness and abandonment. His hand carving of a spade Desert Island Scenario reflets on life without culture should we become isolated on the Defoe island.

For the Portfolio Gavin Turk has taken this idea further with the idle musings of a shipwrecked artist carving cultural fairy tale iconography pirate-style into a whale bone. A scrimshaw rendering of Moby Dick meets Theseus and de Chirico.

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Framing - This piece has been framed by an experienced in-house framing team to conservation standards. This is included in the price. We use archival materials and 99% anti UV glass to ensure the long-term safety and stability of the artwork. All frames are bespoke, taking into account the precise needs of each piece in terms of preservation and presentation. Click here for more information.

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Hidden focuses on sought after, limited edition prints by the most illustrious artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. Click here to view more work from our collection.

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