Rachel Kneebone
Encyclopedia
Life and work
Rachel Kneebone was born in OxfordshireOxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
. She graduated in 1997 with a First Class BA (Hons)
Bachelor of Arts
A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...
degree from U.W.E
University of the West of England
The University of the West of England is a university based in the English city of Bristol. Its main campus is at Frenchay, about five miles north of the city centre...
, Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. In 2004, Kneebone graduated with an MA
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in sculpture from the Royal College of Art
Royal College of Art
The Royal College of Art is an art school located in London, United Kingdom. It is the world’s only wholly postgraduate university of art and design, offering the degrees of Master of Arts , Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy...
, London.
In 2005, she was nominated for the MaxMara Art Prize for Women
MaxMara Art Prize for Women in association with the Whitechapel
MaxMara Art Prize for Women in collaboration with the Whitechapel is a biannual Art Prize for British-based female artists organized by the MaxMara fashion house and The Whitechapel Gallery in London...
alongside Anne Hardy
Anne Hardy
Anne Hardy is a British artist best known for her large-scale photographic work of unusual interior spaces. She completed an MA in photography at the Royal College of Art in 2000, having graduated from Cheltenham School of Art in 1993 with a degree in painting...
, Anj Smith
Anj Smith
Anj Smith is an artist.Born in Kent in the UK, Smith studied in England at Slade School of Fine Art and Fine Art at Goldsmiths College in London.Anj Smith creates paintings which are often executed on a small scale and highly detailed...
, Margaret Salmon
Margaret Salmon
Margaret Salmon is an American and British based film maker-artist. The work of this New York-born filmmaker is fuelled by references to the great realist tradition in film, be it the propaganda documentary of the Farm Security Administration in the United States, Italian neorealism, or French...
and Donna Huddleston. In the same year, Kneebone contributed work to a show The Way We Work at the Camden Arts Centre
Camden Arts Centre
Camden Arts Centre is a contemporary visual art gallery, dedicated to engaging living artists from across the world. Positioning the artist at the centre of the programme, Camden Arts Centre strives to involve the public in the ideas and work of today's artists.The exhibition and education...
, London.
In 2005, Kneebone was commissioned to do a wall sculpture by Mario Testino
Mario Testino
-Early Life:Testino grew up in Lima, the eldest son of a businessman. When he was young he wanted to be a priest. Testino recalls being unpopular at school because of his flamboyance. He was good at math and went on to study economics at Universidad del Pacífico, where his insistence on wearing...
for the Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
exhibition at Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace
Kensington Palace is a royal residence set in Kensington Gardens in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in London, England. It has been a residence of the British Royal Family since the 17th century and is the official London residence of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, the Duke and...
.
In July – August 2006, Kneebone had her first solo exhibition in London at Madder Rose gallery, which included a number of sculptures such as Loves all-worshipped tomb, where all love's pilgrims come (2005). All the works in this show sold out on the opening night. Reviewer Katarina Horrox commented that Kneebone's "carefully crafted sculptures witness various organic forms merging ambiguously into human body-parts as they climb elegantly up walls. Suggestive yet sensitive, her creations harp back to Ovid's Metamorphoses, whilst their fixed immobility implies a transgression of time and motion."
In 2007, The Evening Standard highlighted Kneebone as one to watch thanks to her "beautiful and sexy hand-moulded porcelain sculptures". In September 2007, Kneebone's work was included in the opening group exhibition An Archaeology at Project Space 176 in London's Chalk Farm area.
In 2008, Kneebone began to be represented by Jay Jopling
Jay Jopling
Jeremy "Jay" Jopling is an English art dealer and gallery owner. He is closely associated with the YBA artists and his gallery White Cube represents the commercial interests of YBAs Jake & Dinos Chapman, Tracey Emin, Marcus Harvey, Damien Hirst, Gary Hume, Marc Quinn, and Sam Taylor-Wood, whom he...
and the White Cube
White Cube
White Cube is a contemporary art gallery designed by MRJ Rundell & Associates in Hoxton Square in the East End of London Mason's Yard, in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London...
gallery in London. Kneebone's first solo show with White Cube
White Cube
White Cube is a contemporary art gallery designed by MRJ Rundell & Associates in Hoxton Square in the East End of London Mason's Yard, in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London...
The Descent was in February 2009.
In 2008, Tracey Emin
Tracey Emin
Tracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
selected a work by Kneebone to include in her room at the Royal Academy
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly, London. The Royal Academy of Arts has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, enjoyment and...
's Summer Exhibition. Emin said: "Her work is exciting for me – porcelain figurines, vulnerable and with an eighteenth-century look. I like Georgian things – my house was built in 1729, and I like simplicity and straight lines."
She is known for finely sculpted white porcelain works of various organic forms merging ambiguously into human body-parts. Her work has been described as depicting an "erotic state of flux" and "celebrating forms of transgression, beauty and seduction."
Her work is said to be influenced by ancient Greek and Roman myths in Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's poem Metamorphoses and the "seductive, mythological paintings" of 18th century artist François Boucher
François Boucher
François Boucher was a French painter, a proponent of Rococo taste, known for his idyllic and voluptuous paintings on classical themes, decorative allegories representing the arts or pastoral occupations, intended as a sort of two-dimensional furniture...
.
In January 2009, Kneebone spoke to the Tate Etc.
TATE ETC.
Tate Etc. is an arts magazine produced within Britain's Tate organisation of arts and museums. Prior to the production of Tate Etc. the Tate produced eight issues in 2002 and 2003 of its forerunner, Tate Magazine, variously called Tate International Arts and Culture and Tate Arts and Culture...
magazine about William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
's work The Primaeval Giants Sunk in the Soil (1824–1827), from Illustrations to Dante
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
's Divine Comedy, 8th circle of Hell.
Group exhibitions
- 2008
- Art Basel, White Cube, Miami
- Summer Exhibition 2008, (Gallery VIII, curated by Tracey EminTracey EminTracey Karima Emin RA is a British artist of English and Turkish Cypriot origin. She is part of the group known as Britartists or YBAs ....
) Royal Academy of Arts, London
- 2007
- An Archaeology, Project space 176, London
- Dining Room Show, Andrea Rosen Gallery, Amagansett, New York
- Mario Testino at Home, Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York
- Meat district, Showroom Mama, Rotterdam
- 2006
- Zoo Art Fair, T1.2 & Paradise Row Gallery, London
- 2005
- Diana, Princess of Wales by Mario Testino, Kensington Palace, London
- Zoo Art Fair, with Studio 1.1, Regent's Park, London
- The Way We Work Now, Camden Arts Centre, London
- Young Masters, Art Fortnight, London
- 2004
- Arrivals 2004, Selected by Marjorie Allthorpe-Gunyon, Arts Council, London
- Pump House Gallery, Battersea Park, London
- Out Of Time, St. Augustine's Tower, London
- Show 1, Upper Gulbenkian Gallery, Royal College Of Art, London
Collections
- Saatchi GallerySaatchi GalleryThe Saatchi Gallery is a London gallery for contemporary art, opened by Charles Saatchi in 1985 in order to exhibit his collection to the public. It has occupied different premises, first in North London, then the South Bank by the River Thames and currently in Chelsea. Saatchi's collection, and...
- Goss Michael Foundation (George MichaelGeorge MichaelGeorge Michael is a British musician, singer, songwriter and record producer who rose to fame in the 1980s when he formed the pop duo Wham! with his school friend, Andrew Ridgeley...
) - David RobertsDavid Roberts (art collector)David Roberts is a multi- millionaire commercial property developer and is considered as one of the UK's most important art collectors.-Early life:David Ian Roberts came from a family who worked in shipbuilding in Greenock, Scotland...
- Mario TestinoMario Testino-Early Life:Testino grew up in Lima, the eldest son of a businessman. When he was young he wanted to be a priest. Testino recalls being unpopular at school because of his flamboyance. He was good at math and went on to study economics at Universidad del Pacífico, where his insistence on wearing...
- Zabludowicz Collection (Project Space 176)Poju ZabludowiczChaim "Poju" Zabludowicz , owner of the Liechtenstein-registered Tamares investment group, is a Finnish Jewish businessman based in London...