Forthcoming Exhibitions in the UK, Winter 2023
Press Release
Rodney Graham. Getting it Together in the Country
Hauser & Wirth Somerset
28 January – 8 May 2023
Over the course of five decades, Canadian artist Rodney Graham (1949 – 2022) expanded his diverse practice to encompass photography, painting, sculpture, film, video and music. A true polymath, Graham seamlessly inhabited different personae, genres and art forms throughout his unparalleled career. ‘It may be a burden to reinvent oneself every time,’ Graham said, ‘but it makes things more interesting.’ Shifting across mediums, Graham examined the complexities of Western culture with wit and authenticity, revealing a myriad of insights into social and historical structures.
In celebration of Graham’s multifaceted artistic vision, Hauser & Wirth Somerset is honoured to present ‘Rodney Graham. Getting it Together in the Country’. The artist was developing the exhibition prior to his passing in October 2022, with the title also taking its name from Graham’s 2000 LP featuring improvised guitar recordings. Music was a vital and constant theme in Graham’s life, including live performances at many Hauser & Wirth occasions, such as the 2014 inauguration festivities in Somerset. In dialogue with the rural gallery setting, the exhibition will open with Graham’s major late body of work, ‘The Four Seasons’, created between 2011 and 2013. The landmark lightbox series evolved organically and is dedicated to nature’s cycle through meticulously staged mis-en-scènes, reflecting a moment of pause and desire to step out of the daily grind.
In Graham’s photographic work, each image is a fictional self-portrait, with the artist in costume but always recognisable, portraying a vast array of characters. From the props and their placement within the frame to the elaborate costumes and stage sets, each scene—either in his Vancouver studio or in public facilities around the city—is purposefully constructed and executed with an exceptional degree of technical expertise and humour.
Günther Förg. Tupfenbilder
Hauser & Wirth London
1 February – 29 April 2023
Günther Förg was a prolific painter, sculptor, graphic designer and photographer whose daring conceptual works incorporate and critique tropes of the sprawling movement known as modernism. This exhibition, in the North Gallery of the London space, displays Förg’s Spot Paintings, the artist’s final series made between 2005 – 2010 before he stopped painting in 2010 after suffering a stroke. Named the Tupfenbilder series after the German word for ‘spot paintings,’ this body of work celebrates the act of painting, drawing on Förg’s earlier painterly practice but reimagining his previous explorations in innovative ways.
In these works, the brushstroke itself becomes the main protagonist, representing an ultimate return to expressive painting, indicating a completion of sorts—a full-circle arrival at painting as a synthesis of experimentation, rooted in art history. The Spot Paintings were partially influenced by photographs Förg saw of Francis Bacon’s studio, which was covered in colourful blotches of paint created when the artist would wipe his brushes on the walls and door of the studio to remove excess paint. This method was all too familiar to Förg, who would frequently work out the value of a color by dabbing pigment from his brush to a paper or cloth surface.
Günther Förg is one of the most significant German artists of the postwar generation. In the breadth of his production, from monochrome painting to colour studies, from photography to wall paintings, from bronze reliefs to sculptures, Förg explored what art critic Kirsty Bell describes as ‘the visual field,’ swiftly moving between mediums and series with an abruptness that so characteristically defined the artist and his work.
Myrlande Constant, La Sirene, 2003, Mixed Media, 87.6 x 91.4 cm / 34 1/2 x 36 in © Myrlande Constant. Courtesy of Fort Gansevoort, New York. Photo: Jeff McLane.jpg)
Tuesday Smillie, Sequin Light (Orange, with Kjerstin Rossi), 2021, Vinyl, textile, spray paint, sequins, plastic, twine, metal snap, 237.5 x 226.1 cm / 93 1/2 x 89 in. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Thomas BarrattThe New Bend
Hauser & Wirth Somerset
28 January – 8 May 2023
Curated by Legacy Russell, Executive Director & Chief Curator of The Kitchen, ‘The New Bend’ travels from the gallery’s Los Angeles location to Somerset in late January. The exhibition brings together 13 contemporary artists working in the raced, classed and gendered traditions of quilting and textile practice – Anthony Akinbola, Eddie R. Aparicio, Dawn Williams Boyd, Myrlande Constant, Ferren Gipson, Tomashi Jackson, Basil Kincaid, Eric N. Mack, Sojourner Truth Parsons, Tuesday Smillie, Rachel Eulena Williams, Qualeasha Wood and Zadie Xa.
Their unique visual vernacular exists in tender dialogue with, and in homage to, the contributions of the Gee’s Bend Alabama quilters. Coinciding with the traveling exhibition, the gallery presents ‘Community Lab: Threads of Connection,’ evolving from LA to Somerset. Alongside a range of practical workshops, the Community Labs provide opportunities to learn more about the Gee’s Bend quilters through an extensive timeline of the Alabama region and documentary provided by Souls Grown Deep.
Press Contacts:
Alice Haguenauer, alicehaguenauer@hauserwirth.com, +44 7880 421823
Laura Cook, lauracook@hauserwirth.com, +44 (0)7920 414 876
Hauser & Wirth London
23 Savile Row
London W1S 2ET
Gallery hours:
Tuesday to Saturday
10 am – 6 pm
Hauser & Wirth Somerset
Durslade Farm, Dropping Lane
Bruton, Somerset BA10 0NL
Gallery hours:
Tuesday – Sunday
10 am – 4 pm