Galleria Fumagalli presents the first solo exhibition of English artist Richard Wilson in the Milan gallery in Via Bonaventura Cavalieri 6. The collaboration with the artist dates back to 2004 with his participation in the group show AAVV:30, followed by the personal show “The Ape Piaggio” held in 2007 in the historical gallery in Bergamo. Internationally celebrated for his spatial interventions that draw inspiration from the worlds of engineering and construction, Richard Wilson has been working for over 35 years making major museums exhibitions and public works worldwide. Collapsed caravans, dismounted taxis, stacked shacks and stairs that lead nowhere, are just some of the impressive creations of the artist that reflect on the relationship between art and architecture. Richard Wilson’s conception of sculpture has always been built on the manipulation of the material around him to articulate a di erent perspective that the expected. As he says: “I need that initial thing from the real world because I’ve always been concerned with the way you can alter someone’s perception, knock their view o kilter. And to do that I need to start with something we think we understand.” For the exhibition “Take an Object”, Richard Wilson presents a body of new works – four sculptures accompanied by eight drawings and two postcard works -, deriving from identifiable domestic objects with their shape and space reconfigured. With his interventions the artist explores the human habitat and its components through their deconstruction and reconfiguration. It is primarily through the process of cutting and rearranging to sort of playful that Richard Wilson interrogates the original form of objects.

In the case of “Stealing Space, Compressed” (2018), for example, a pre-existing sculpture is disassembled and rebuilt reducing the greater volume to its vital detailing; the interconnected special conundrum resulting from this compression creates a new work from the old. Consisting of five cylindrical wooden shells, taken from a musical instrument (a drum) and reconfigured taking on a globular form linked as a whole, “Shells” (2018) hints at a history of form but exists as a totally new special volume. “Direct Debit” (2018) comes from the idea of projecting into three dimensions a puzzle of a snipped up black plastic bank card; the shape given by the projected pieces expanded like a cone on a plywood surface is perceived by the observer under a new perspective. Referring to the tradition of still life but at the same time including a narrative given by a shift of positions, the sculpture “Still Life Jug” (2015) presents an inanimate object – an household jug – forever trapped in the act of moving. On show are also eight drawings describing the processes these domestic items have undergone. The works presented in the exhibition “Take an Object” demonstrate an approach to sculpture-making that goes back to a famous Jasper Johns quote ”Take an object, do something to it, do something else to it”. The sense of disorientation induced by the vision of these sculptures is given by the ambiguity between the feeling of familiarity and at the same time of newness that makes the exposed images recognizable, in part but not entirely. It is thanks to this new articulation of the material that Richard Wilson reactivates the viewer’s perception by suggesting new spatial relationships.

Richard Wilson (London 1953) is among the most renowned sculptors of Great Britain. His work o ers new perspectives on everyday spaces, creating installations that force the observer to re-evaluate the environment, to rethink it, inspiring a sense of wonder. Among his most notable and significant projects: “20:50”, installed at M.O.N.A. Museum in Tasmania, a reflective sea of recycled engine oil; “A Slice of Reality” public work realized for the Millennium Dome site in 2000, a vertical section of an oceanic dredger exposed to the e ects of time and tide; “Turning the Place Over”, commissioned for Liverpool 2008 European Capital of Culture and active until 2011, an ovoid section of 10 meter diameter on the façade of a disused building turned three-dimensionally onto a central spindle; and the most recent “Slipstream” realized in 2014 for Terminal 2 of London’s Heathrow airport, a monumental 80- meter aluminium project that represents the passage in space of a moving object. His exhibitions and personal projects have been held in institutions around the world, among the most recent: Annely Juda Fine Art, London (2017), Peninsula Hotel, Hong Kong (2014); De La Warr Pavilion Roof, Cultural Olympiad Project, London (2012); Vertu Global Commissions, London and Shanghai (2011); Barbican Art Center, London (2006); Palazzo delle Papesse – Centro d’arte contemporanea, Siena (2004); Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh (2002); Tate Gallery, London and Chateau de Sacy, Picardie (1997); Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles (1994); Kunsterhaus Bethanien, Berlin (1993); Centrum Sztuki Wspolczesnej, Warsaw and Museum of Modern Art, Oxford (1990). Among the international expositions: Triennale di Folkestone (2008), Triennale di Yokohama (2005), Biennale di Sydney (1992), Biennale di San Paolo (1990), Trigon Biennale, Graz (1987), Biennale di Venezia (1986). Works by Richard Wilson are permanently exhibited in prestigious collections such as The British Museum, London; Weltkunst Collection @ IMMA, Dublin; Ulster Museum, Belfast; Center of Contemporary Art, Warsaw; Museet for Samstidskunst, Oslo.

View press release →

artribune.com

9 July 2018
“Vuoto, spazio e geometrie. Richard Wilson a Milano”

Read article  →

la Repubblica

12 May 2018
“Caraffe, tamburi e carte di credito. Con Wilson diventa tutto scultura”

Read article  →

Segno

June-July 2018
“Richard Wilson. Take an Object”

Read article  →

Il Giorno

10 May 2018
“Prendi un oggetto, trasformalo: è l’arte di Wilson”

Read article  →

bulgarihotels.com

June 2018
“Reinventare lo spazio: in mostra le sculture di Richard Wilson”

Read article  →