Liam Gillick
Encyclopedia
Liam Gillick is a British
conceptual artist who lives in New York City
. He is often associated with the artists included the 1996 exhibit Traffic
, which first introduced the term Relational Art
.
Liam Gillick graduated from Goldsmiths College
in 1987 with a degree in Fine Art. In 1989 he mounted his first solo gallery exhibition, 84 Diagrams, Karsten Schubert
, in London. Gillick has exhibited in galleries and institutions in Europe and the United States, many of which have been collaborative projects with other artists, architects, designers and writers. In 1991, together with art collector, and co-publisher of Art Monthly
, Jack Wendler
, Gillick founded the limited editions and publishing company G-W Press. The company produced limited editions by artists including Jeremy Deller
and Anya Gallaccio
. Gillick was a member of the Dance Music group Soho (band)
in the early 90's and is credited with providing live samples during the groups live performances.
Together with Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Angela Bulloch and Henry Bond he was, "the earliest of the YBAs"—the Young British Artists
who dominated British art during the 1990s.
In 2002, Gillick was selected to produce artworks for the canopy, the glass facade, the kiosks, the entrance ikon, and the vitrines, of the then-recently-completed Home Office
building, a United Kingdom government department, at Marsham Street, London. In 2002, Gillick was nominated for the annual British Turner Prize
.In the Winter 2006 edition of October (No. 115) Gillick's response to Claire Bishop's October article "Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics," was published as "Contingent Factors: A Response to Claire Bishop's 'Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics'." Gillick has also contributed written articles to fine art journals Frieze
and Artforum
.
In 2008, Gillick was short-listed for the Vincent Award of the Stedelijk Museum
, Amsterdam. In 2009, Gillick represented Germany
in the Giardini Pavilions
of the Venice Biennale
.
On October 1, 2010, in an open letter to the British Government's culture secretary Jeremy Hunt—co-signed by a further 27 previous Turner prize nominees, and 19 winners—Gillick opposed any future cuts in public funding for the arts. In the letter the cosignatories described the arts in Britain as a "remarkable and fertile landscape of culture and creativity."
In October 2010, Gillick contributed a recipe for a vodka and lime juice-based cocktail
as his participation in the Ryan Gander
art project "Ryan's Bar." The beverage titled "Maybe it would be better if we worked in groups of two and a half," was sold for £50 per serving. In 2010, Gillick composed a score of "zingy electronica" for the artists' film "Beijing," made by his wife Sarah Morris
.
Together with others including Ingrid Schaffner
and Tirdad Zolghadr
, Gillick is one of the Graduate Committee of the Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture at Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson. He has been on the faculty of Columbia University, School of the Arts in New York since 1997. Gillick is represented in the UK by Maureen Paley
and in New York by Casey Kaplan
.
, has said,
The focus of Gillick' practice is evaluations of the aesthetics of social systems with a focus on modes of production rather than consumption. He is interested in forms of social organization. Through his own writings and the use of specific materials in his artworks, Gillick examines how the built world carries traces of social, political and economic systems. As art critic Ina Blom has said,
Central to Gillick's practice are the publication that function in parallel to his artworks. An anthology of these "Allbooks" was published by Book Works, in 2009.
on their Documents Series
a group of eighty-three fine art works which appropriated the modus operandi of a news gathering team, in order to produce relational art
. In order to make the work the duo posed as a news reporting team—i.e., a photographer and a journalist—often attending events scheduled in the Press Association's
Gazette
—a list of potentially newsworthy events in London. Bond worked as if a typical photojournalist, joining the other press photographers present; whilst Gillick operated as the journalist, first collecting the ubiquitous Press kit
before preparing his audio recording device. The series was first shown commercially in 1991, at Karsten Schubert Limited and then, in 1992, at Maureen Paley's
Interim Art —two of the galleries that were pioneers in the development of the YBA art movement. The series was subsequently exhibited at Tate Modern
, in the show Century City held in 2001, and at the Hayward Gallery
, in the exhibition How to Improve the World, in 2006.
in London 2002, A short text on the possibility of creating an economy of equivalence at Palais de Tokyo
in Paris 2005, and the retrospective project Liam Gillick: Three perspectives and a short scenario 2008-2010. Liam Gillick: Three perspectives and a short scenario was created through the collaboration of four international art museums: the Kunsthalle
Zurich, the Witte de With in Rotterdam, Kunstverein München, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
. The U.S. presentation of the exhibition was the most comprehensive of Gillick’s work in an American museum. Accompanying his solo exhibition at the MCA was the show The one hundred and sixty-third floor: Liam Gillick Curates the Collection, curated by Gillick from the MCA collection.
and Theodore Gillick. In the early 1990s he was in a relationship with artist Angela Bulloch
. He married fellow artist Sarah Morris
, in 1998 at a ceremony in Miami. Family relatives include the sculptor Ernest Gillick
, the medal
lionist Mary Gillick
, and the pro-life
activist Victoria Gillick
.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
conceptual artist who lives in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He is often associated with the artists included the 1996 exhibit Traffic
Traffic (art exhibition)
Traffic is the title of a group exhibition of contemporary art that took place at CAPC musée d'art contemporain de Bordeaux, France, through February and March, 1996...
, which first introduced the term Relational Art
Relational Art
Relational art or relational aesthetics is a mode or tendency in fine art practice originally observed and highlighted by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud...
.
Life and career
Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom which specialises in the arts, humanities and social sciences, and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute...
in 1987 with a degree in Fine Art. In 1989 he mounted his first solo gallery exhibition, 84 Diagrams, Karsten Schubert
Karsten Schubert
Karsten Schubert is an artists' representative and gallery proprietor working in England.-Karsten Schubert Limited:Karsten Schubert ran Karsten Schubert Limited, initially in collaboration, and with the backing of, Richard Salmon, from 1986 to 1991...
, in London. Gillick has exhibited in galleries and institutions in Europe and the United States, many of which have been collaborative projects with other artists, architects, designers and writers. In 1991, together with art collector, and co-publisher of Art Monthly
Art Monthly
Art Monthly is a magazine of contemporary art founded in 1976 by Jack Wendler and Peter Townsend. It is based in London and has an international scope, although its main focus is on British art...
, Jack Wendler
Jack Wendler
Jack Wendler is a former art gallery owner who co-founded the fine arts journal Art Monthly in 1976. Between December 1971 and July 1974 the Jack Wendler Gallery held 26 exhibitions in five London locations—including a show by American artist Robert Barry...
, Gillick founded the limited editions and publishing company G-W Press. The company produced limited editions by artists including Jeremy Deller
Jeremy Deller
Jeremy Deller is an English conceptual, video and installation artist. He is a Turner Prize winner.Deller is best-known for his Battle of Orgreave , a reenactment of the actual Battle of Orgreave which occurred during the UK miners' strike in 1984.-Life and work:Jeremy Deller was born in London,...
and Anya Gallaccio
Anya Gallaccio
Anya Gallaccio is a Scottish artist, who often works with organic matter. She was a nominee in the 2003 Turner Prize.-Life and career:...
. Gillick was a member of the Dance Music group Soho (band)
Soho (band)
Soho were an English pop trio, consisting of the sisters Jacqueline Cuff and Pauline Cuff, with Timothy London. Other members of the group over the years have been Dukie D , Liam Gillick , Eds Chesters , Leigh Gorman and...
in the early 90's and is credited with providing live samples during the groups live performances.
Together with Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Angela Bulloch and Henry Bond he was, "the earliest of the YBAs"—the Young British Artists
Young British Artists
Young British Artists or YBAs is the name given to a loose group of visual artists who first began to exhibit together in London, in 1988...
who dominated British art during the 1990s.
In 2002, Gillick was selected to produce artworks for the canopy, the glass facade, the kiosks, the entrance ikon, and the vitrines, of the then-recently-completed Home Office
Home Office
The Home Office is the United Kingdom government department responsible for immigration control, security, and order. As such it is responsible for the police, UK Border Agency, and the Security Service . It is also in charge of government policy on security-related issues such as drugs,...
building, a United Kingdom government department, at Marsham Street, London. In 2002, Gillick was nominated for the annual British Turner Prize
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist under the age of 50. Awarding the prize is organised by the Tate gallery and staged at Tate Britain. Since its beginnings in 1984 it has become the United Kingdom's most publicised...
.In the Winter 2006 edition of October (No. 115) Gillick's response to Claire Bishop's October article "Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics," was published as "Contingent Factors: A Response to Claire Bishop's 'Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics'." Gillick has also contributed written articles to fine art journals Frieze
Frieze
thumb|267px|Frieze of the [[Tower of the Winds]], AthensIn architecture the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon...
and Artforum
Artforum
Artforum is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art.-Publication:The magazine is published ten times a year, September through May, along with an annual summer issue...
.
In 2008, Gillick was short-listed for the Vincent Award of the Stedelijk Museum
Stedelijk Museum
Founded in 1874, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for classic modern and contemporary art in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It has been housed on the Paulus Potterstraat, next to Museum Square Museumplein and to the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam Zuid...
, Amsterdam. In 2009, Gillick represented Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
in the Giardini Pavilions
Venice giardini
The Venice giardini is an area of parkland in the historic city of Venice which hosts the Venice Art Festival, a major part of the city's cultural biennale. The gardens were created by Napoleon Bonaparte who drained an area of marshland in order to create a public garden on the banks of the Bacino...
of the Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
.
On October 1, 2010, in an open letter to the British Government's culture secretary Jeremy Hunt—co-signed by a further 27 previous Turner prize nominees, and 19 winners—Gillick opposed any future cuts in public funding for the arts. In the letter the cosignatories described the arts in Britain as a "remarkable and fertile landscape of culture and creativity."
In October 2010, Gillick contributed a recipe for a vodka and lime juice-based cocktail
Cocktail
A cocktail is an alcoholic mixed drink that contains two or more ingredients—at least one of the ingredients must be a spirit.Cocktails were originally a mixture of spirits, sugar, water, and bitters. The word has come to mean almost any mixed drink that contains alcohol...
as his participation in the Ryan Gander
Ryan Gander
Ryan Gander is a disabled English artist. He is a native of Chester.- Personal background :Ryan Gander is a wheelchair user with a long-term physical disability, however, he is reluctant to discuss his physical limitations in interviews with the press.. Some of his work makes reference to the fact...
art project "Ryan's Bar." The beverage titled "Maybe it would be better if we worked in groups of two and a half," was sold for £50 per serving. In 2010, Gillick composed a score of "zingy electronica" for the artists' film "Beijing," made by his wife Sarah Morris
Sarah Morris
Sarah Morris , is a British-born American artist.-Education and exhibitions:Morris double majored in Semiotics and Political Philosophy at Brown University, graduating magna cum laude...
.
Together with others including Ingrid Schaffner
Ingrid Schaffner
Ingrid Schaffner is a curator and writer who has been working in contemporary art since the mid-1980s. Schaffner is known for developing bodies of work around the themes of surrealism, collecting, and photography....
and Tirdad Zolghadr
Tirdad Zolghadr
Tirdad Zolghadr , works as a freelance curator, writes for Frieze Magazine and has also contributed to Parkett, Bidoun, Cabinet, Afterall, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Straits Times Singapore and other publications. Zolghadr currently teaches at the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College NY...
, Gillick is one of the Graduate Committee of the Center for Curatorial Studies and Art in Contemporary Culture at Bard College Annandale-on-Hudson. He has been on the faculty of Columbia University, School of the Arts in New York since 1997. Gillick is represented in the UK by Maureen Paley
Maureen Paley
Maureen Paley is the American owner of a contemporary art gallery in Bethnal Green, London, where she lives. It was founded in 1984, called Interim Art during the 1990s, and renamed Maureen Paley in 2004. She exhibited Young British Artists at an early stage...
and in New York by Casey Kaplan
Casey Kaplan gallery
The Casey Kaplan gallery is a contemporary art gallery located in the heart of Chelsea in New York City.-History:Founded by Casey Kaplan in March 1995, the gallery began as a 500sq. foot, one-room space located on an upper floor of a cast iron loft building on Broadway in SoHo. It now operates in...
.
Artistic practice
Gillick's artistic output is characterized by diversity, as Caoimhin Mac Giolla Leith, of University College DublinUniversity College Dublin
University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...
, has said,
"Gillick's practice to date has encompassed a wide range of media and activities (including sculpture, writing, architectural and graphic design, film, and music) as well as various critical and curatorial projects, his work as a whole is also marked by a fondness for diversions and distractions, tangents and evasions."
The focus of Gillick' practice is evaluations of the aesthetics of social systems with a focus on modes of production rather than consumption. He is interested in forms of social organization. Through his own writings and the use of specific materials in his artworks, Gillick examines how the built world carries traces of social, political and economic systems. As art critic Ina Blom has said,
"Artists such as Liam Gillick ... no longer address abstraction as the principle for the creation of distinct minimalist objects, but rather try to create through design spaces for open social interaction [artworks] whose actual use is to be constantly redefined within the situation of the exhibition - without necessarily producing relational-aesthetic models of community."
Central to Gillick's practice are the publication that function in parallel to his artworks. An anthology of these "Allbooks" was published by Book Works, in 2009.
Documents Series with Henry Bond
Between 1990 and 1994, Gillick collaborated with artist Henry BondHenry Bond
Henry Bond is an English writer, photographer curator, and visual artist. In his Lacan at the Scene , Bond made a contribution to theoretical psychoanalysis....
on their Documents Series
Documents Series
Documents Series is the overall title of a series of eighty-three fine artworks made collaboratively by Henry Bond and Liam Gillick between 1990 and 1995...
a group of eighty-three fine art works which appropriated the modus operandi of a news gathering team, in order to produce relational art
Relational Art
Relational art or relational aesthetics is a mode or tendency in fine art practice originally observed and highlighted by French art critic Nicolas Bourriaud...
. In order to make the work the duo posed as a news reporting team—i.e., a photographer and a journalist—often attending events scheduled in the Press Association's
Press Association
The Press Association is the national news agency of the United Kingdom and Ireland, supplying multimedia news content to almost all national and regional newspapers, television and radio news, as well as many websites with text, pictures, video and data content globally...
Gazette
Gazette
A gazette is a public journal, a newspaper of record, or simply a newspaper.In English- and French-speaking countries, newspaper publishers have applied the name Gazette since the 17th century; today, numerous weekly and daily newspapers bear the name The Gazette.Gazette is a loanword from the...
—a list of potentially newsworthy events in London. Bond worked as if a typical photojournalist, joining the other press photographers present; whilst Gillick operated as the journalist, first collecting the ubiquitous Press kit
Press kit
A press kit, often referred to as a media kit in business environments, is a pre-packaged set of promotional materials of a person, company, or organization distributed to members of the media for promotional use...
before preparing his audio recording device. The series was first shown commercially in 1991, at Karsten Schubert Limited and then, in 1992, at Maureen Paley's
Maureen Paley
Maureen Paley is the American owner of a contemporary art gallery in Bethnal Green, London, where she lives. It was founded in 1984, called Interim Art during the 1990s, and renamed Maureen Paley in 2004. She exhibited Young British Artists at an early stage...
Interim Art —two of the galleries that were pioneers in the development of the YBA art movement. The series was subsequently exhibited at Tate Modern
Tate Modern
Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
, in the show Century City held in 2001, and at the Hayward Gallery
Hayward Gallery
The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre, part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames, in central London, England. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings and also the Royal National Theatre and British Film Institute...
, in the exhibition How to Improve the World, in 2006.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions include The Wood Way at Whitechapel GalleryWhitechapel Gallery
The Whitechapel Gallery is a public art gallery on the north side of Whitechapel High Street, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Designed by Charles Harrison Townsend, it was founded in 1901 as one of the first publicly-funded galleries for temporary exhibitions in London, and it has a long...
in London 2002, A short text on the possibility of creating an economy of equivalence at Palais de Tokyo
Palais de Tokyo
The Palais de Tokyo is a building dedicated to modern and contemporary art, located at 13 avenue du Président-Wilson, near the Trocadéro, in the 16th arrondissement of Paris. The eastern wing of the building belongs the City of Paris and hosts the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris...
in Paris 2005, and the retrospective project Liam Gillick: Three perspectives and a short scenario 2008-2010. Liam Gillick: Three perspectives and a short scenario was created through the collaboration of four international art museums: the Kunsthalle
Kunsthalle
Kunsthalle is, generally, in German speaking regions a term for a facility mounting temporary art exhibitions. Some are run or supported by a local Kunstverein, an art association of local collectors and artists...
Zurich, the Witte de With in Rotterdam, Kunstverein München, and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
. The U.S. presentation of the exhibition was the most comprehensive of Gillick’s work in an American museum. Accompanying his solo exhibition at the MCA was the show The one hundred and sixty-third floor: Liam Gillick Curates the Collection, curated by Gillick from the MCA collection.
Personal life and family
Gillick is cousin to British artists James GillickJames Gillick
James Gillick is an artist working in the figurative tradition. He works from his studio in Louth, Lincolnshire. His paintings range from the smallest of still-lifes, including game paintings to large scale portraits and horse portraits, as well as church re-ordering and gilding.At a time when...
and Theodore Gillick. In the early 1990s he was in a relationship with artist Angela Bulloch
Angela Bulloch
Angela Bulloch , is an artist who often works with sound and installation; she is recognised as one of the Young British Artists.-Life and career:...
. He married fellow artist Sarah Morris
Sarah Morris
Sarah Morris , is a British-born American artist.-Education and exhibitions:Morris double majored in Semiotics and Political Philosophy at Brown University, graduating magna cum laude...
, in 1998 at a ceremony in Miami. Family relatives include the sculptor Ernest Gillick
Ernest Gillick
Ernest Gillick was a British sculptor.Gillick studied at the Nottingham School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. His first important commission was for the figures of J.M.W...
, the medal
Medal
A medal, or medallion, is generally a circular object that has been sculpted, molded, cast, struck, stamped, or some way rendered with an insignia, portrait, or other artistic rendering. A medal may be awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for athletic, military, scientific,...
lionist Mary Gillick
Mary Gillick
Mary Gillick was a sculptor best known for her effigy of Elizabeth II used on coinage in the United Kingdom and elsewhere from 1953 to 1967....
, and the pro-life
Pro-life
Opposition to the legalization of abortion is centered around the pro-life, or anti-abortion, movement, a social and political movement opposing elective abortion on moral grounds and supporting its legal prohibition or restriction...
activist Victoria Gillick
Victoria Gillick
Victoria D.M. Gillick is a British campaigner best known for the eponymous 1985 UK House of Lords ruling that considered whether contraception could be prescribed to under-16s without parental consent or knowledge...
.
Literature
- Liam Gillick, Proxemics: Selected writing 1988-2006 (JRP Ringier, 2007).
- Lilian Haberer, Liam Gillick: Factories in the Snow (JRP-Ringier, 2007).
- Monika Szewczyk (ed.) Meaning Liam Gillick (MIT Press, 2009).
External links
- Liam Gillick's website
- Documentation of recent Liam Gillick exhibitions
- Casey Kaplan Gallery
- Maureen Paley
- Esther Schipper
- Air de Paris
- Photos of Gillick's Turner Prize installation
- Gillick on the Tate Gallery website
- KultureFlash Interview (27/11/02)
- Article regarding the Documenta X Winter School written by Liam Gillick
- Article, by Liam Gillick, defining The Discursive in contemporary art practice and curation
- Gillick interview at Fillip
- Liam Gillick in Dům umění České Budějovice, Budweis, Czech Republic