Luhring Augustine is pleased to present recent work by Rachel Whiteread at The 2011 Art Show, organized by the Art Dealer’s Association of America. Whiteread creates elegant and ethereal sculptures which investigate space, absence and memory. Often inspired by personal history, her works are poignant for their exploration of intimate domestic spaces and common household objects. Whiteread typically uses industrial materials such as plaster, resin and rubber to cast the negative space surrounding or within an object. The resulting sculptures retain the texture and shape of the original objects, yet are eerie ghosts of their former selves.
In her recent works, Whiteread adopts a more playful approach towards color and form. She casts small boxes, cardboard tubes and pieces of styrofoam in various shades of resin, plaster and bronze and arranges the resulting sculptural elements into elegant abstract compositions. Assembled in the manner of still lifes, these works are unassuming in scale, yet possess a beauty and dignity which belie their utilitarian origins. The restrained palette and exquisite balance of such works as MODEL II are reminiscent of Giorgio Morandi paintings, while works such as SANDWICH display a more exuberant use of color and a relaxed composition. Her newest sculptures of windows entitled LIGHT II and LIGHT III recall a series of plaster doors cast by Whiteread over a decade ago, and reflect her ongoing interest in architecture. Cast in translucent resin, these windows are rendered in jewel tones of deep turquoise and rich amber and attest to the artist’s continued investigation of color, form and space.
Rachel Whiteread has a long list of international distinctions which include winning the 1993 Turner Prize for her public sculpture House, representing Great Britain in the 1997 Venice Biennale and presenting solo exhibitions at such prestigious institutions as the Kunsthalle Basel, the Reina Sofia, The Serpentine Gallery and the Deutsche Guggenheim. She is perhaps best known for large-scale public commissions such as Monument in Trafalgar Square, the Holocaust Memorial in Vienna, and most recently, the cast of a boathouse in Gran, Norway. Her recent exhibition Rachel Whiteread Drawings was presented at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Nasher Sculpture Center in Dallas, and the Tate Britain in London. Her work is housed in private collections and museums around the world, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, the Tate Modern, London and the Centre Pompidou, Paris. The artist lives and works in London, England.
An exhibition of new sculpture and works on paper by Rachel Whiteread will be presented at Luhring Augustine in New York from March 26th through April 30th, 2011.
