Luhring Augustine is pleased to present works by Rachel Whiteread at FIAC 2009.  Whiteread creates elegant and ethereal sculptures which investigate the concepts of space, absence and memory.  Often inspired by personal history, her works are poignant for their exploration of intimate domestic spaces and household objects.  Whiteread eschews traditional sculptural practice, typically casting the negative space surrounding or within an object - the murky darkness beneath a bed frame, the void within a humble cardboard box, the space in and around a myriad collection of books.  The resulting sculptures retain the color, texture or form of the original, yet are eerie ghosts of their former selves.  This exhibition will consist of historical works such as the seminal Untitled (Black Bed) and her Untitled bookshelf piece as well as important new works such as the translucent Ghost, Ghost II in which she casts the interior of a dollhouse.

Rachel Whiteread has a long list of international distinctions which range from winning the 1993 Turner Prize to solo exhibitions at the Kunsthalle Basel, the Reina Sofia, The Serpentine Gallery and the Deutsche Guggenheim.  She has completed several important public commissions including the Water Tower Project for the New York Public Art Fund, The Judenplatz Holocaust memorial in Vienna, and Monument for Trafalgar Square in London.  Her work is housed in museums and private collections 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.  Her Room 101, a cast of writer George Orwell’s infamous office at the BBC, is currently on view in the exhibition elles@centrepompidou at the Centre Pompidou.