Eric Bainbridge | MONITOR

Solo Show 
27 apr 2017 – 10 jun 2017

First solo exhibition in Rome by Eric Bainbridge, with whom the gallery started to collaborate a year ago.

From the beginning of his career in the 1980s, Bainbridge born in Consett, Durham, UK, 1955, has been considered an influential figure for the younger generation of British sculptors thanks to his celebrated works made up of playful assemblages inspired by everyday objectsIn the 1980s and 1990s, the British artist exhibited in significant group shows such as at the Venice Biennale in 1986 and 1990, Material Culture at the Hayward Gallery, London, and in international solo shows such as View Points at the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Eric Bainbridge at The ICA, Boston, and Style, Space, Elegance at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Bainbridge was included in Modern British Sculpture at the Royal Academy, London the most significant exhibition on British Sculpture in recent years, curated by Penelope Curtis and Keith Wilson.

Although borne from the reconsideration and assemblage of found and commonplace objects, often bordering on kitsch, Bainbridge‘s work investigates complex and articulated worlds, offering the viewer an ambiguity and duality which resist a single interpretation.

From sculptures covered in synthetic fur, to installations in metal and other DIY building supplies, Bainbridge gives resonance to everyday objects, by re contextualising Modernist principles, manipulating them with irony and transforming them into infinitely mysterious objects. As an artist interested in the modern day condition above everything else, his work has evolved over the past thirty years by continuously incorporating new media, seeking new solutions and distinguishing itself for its deep reflection on art as part of a wider cultural phenomenon. Bainbridge has not only evolved an extensive sculptural practice, but has also dedicated himself to exploring different forms of expressions collage, drawing, video, photography by employing art as a tool in perpetual expansion, capable of incorporating the constant changes of society. In addition to a substantial group of sculptures, the exhibition will present a selection of the artist’s collages and drawings. Made from glossy magazine covers, the collages propose a reconstruction of a reality which moves between the hilarious and the alarming. Challenging digital prints by employing the traditional copy and paste technique, Bainbridge has created a new relationship between the subject now abstracted from its original context and the advertising message, producing new icons, even as globular forms which appear to float in space. The drawings, preliminary sketches of potential sculptures, lists, notes and drawings of everyday objects and cultural pop icons, create a language and motifs which, contrary to their nature, appear to want to deconstruct the real world.

MONITOR
VIA Sforza Cesarini, 43a
Rome