Gavin Turk – Transit Béton Brut Gallery September 15 – December 10
Gavin Turk Exhaust Etching – “Splat” (2016)
Gavin Turk Exhaust Etching – “Rocket” (2016)
Gavin Turk Exhaust Etching – “Particle” (2016)
Gavin Turk Exhaust Etching – “Ghost” (2016)
Gavin Turk Exhaust Etching – “Explosion” (2016)
Gavin Turk Exhaust Etching – “Blast” (2016)
Prints “Black holes burning through our retinas like staring at the sun, the charcoal-like mark of the exhaust in a feat of comical automatic drawing. The fart of the car, like a contemporary cave drawing, encapsulating the ironies of our age: waste made exquisite – T. S. Eliot would have approved”. Series of six exhaust emission etchings on solar plate in a limited edition of ten Available window mounted with black painted tulip wood and museum glass upon request. Please enquire as to purchasing a specific edition number. H805 x W620mm Unframed £800, Framed £1000 (All photography Andy Keate)
About The exhibition takes place against the backdrop of the fast changing and rapid redevelopment of Hackney Wick which is putting the world’s largest artist community under threat. By enlisting the support of some of the UK’s highest profile artists to draw attention to the problem, Béton Brut Gallery hopes to raise funds to combat the process of gentrification. Gavin Turk’s ‘Transit’ launches a limited edition series of exclusive new etchings derived from the emissions of his white transit van. Profits from the sale of the prints will go towards the on-going work of Creative Wick a local not-for-profit, social enterprise, creative regeneration agency.
Gavin Turk Gavin Turk is considered to be one of the Young British Artists and is internationally exhibited. 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. http://gavinturk.com/ Béton Brut Gallery Unit 2, 30 Felstead St, London E9 5LG info@betonbrut.co.uk +447881 953 708 / +4420 7018 1890
What they say…. “Hackney Wick has become a symbol of creative London.” Gavin Turk, Time Out - October 2016 “As one of the UK’s foremost contemporary artists, we’re excited to be partnering with Gavin Turk to ensure a legacy for Hackney Wick as a viable creative area. Initiatives like this enable us to raise awareness of the constant struggle for recognition of the vital role that artists and the wider creative economy play in the process of urban renewal, something that is all too often overlooked.” William Chamberlain, The Metropolist - September 2016 “Turk hopes that the exhibition will go some way toward making people appreciate the unique nature of a local art scene. “I just hope it will make people aware of the value of art,” he says. “It’s a small step, but it keeps the conversation going, and that’s important.” Hackney Gazette - September 2016 “It’s a story that’s told over and over: artists go to cheap places, they create an energy and people start to be drawn to these areas, and then property developers see that attraction and excitement and start coming in to build flats,” Turk said. “It’s funny, because in a way artists are actually part of the gentrification process. There’s actually an economic value to their cultural capital – artists are financially valuable. Developers should almost be paying them, but how do you do something like that legislatively? Maybe there could be studio spaces on the bottom floor of these expensive flats? But then, I’m not sure artists would be interested.” Gavin Turk, Hackney Citizen - September 2016 ‘What we need to do is demonstrate value – not only economic but also social value,’ says Chamberlain. ‘[The art community] has to become stronger. People have to be able to develop their practice, but commercialism is very difficult to embrace for lots of artists. It’s a very fine line: to find commercial opportunities through the development sector, that can then assist the long term survival of the creative sector.’ Chamberlain says this feels like it’s a path that hasn’t really been trodden in the Wick before: ‘This is the experiment!’ William Chamberlain, Apollo Magazine - September 2016 “At the moment artists and creative people are like the advance party — they find the stranger, weird places that no one sees much value in, they bring them to life, the area becomes valuable and then they are priced out of the market.” Gavin Turk, Dazed Digital - September 2016 “The Cultural Olympiad was a key part of London’s successful bid for the 2012 Games. Hackney Wick was designated as a cultural quarter by the London Legacy Development Corporation so it is outrageous that they should now be betraying their own principles by giving artists the boot.” Hackney Citizen - August 2016 “Hackney Wick is a centre for cultural and artistic output with a global reputation.” i-D Magazine - July 2016