TOM PRICE
THE VIGA SERIES

Twentieth Gallery is pleased to present THE VIGA SERIES, new works by Tom Price.

Tom Price aims to create artworks and immersive experiences that connect with people on multiple levels. Strong conceptual foundations underpin the development of each artwork, stemming from his interests in the human condition and the physical world around us.

While the underlying concepts are critical in informing how his artworks are made, it is important to Tom that his sculptures are able to communicate on an immediate level without the need to delve deeper into the reasons behind their creation.

Materials play a fundamental role in augmenting the narrative content of his work, creating a more direct connection between form and thought. Tom often uses chance as a tool to encourage unpredictable outcomes from unconventional and industrial materials. He sees himself as working in collaboration with materials and phenomena to create artworks that are a product of mutual consent. Employing chance in this way allows him to transcend the limits of his own imagination.

Drawing on a background in design, Tom frequently explores notions of function and investigates ways in which the perception of an artwork can change when used as a place to sit or play, challenging traditional ideas of what a sculpture should or could be.

Although I predominantly work with man made or synthetic materials, I have always had a fascination with nature and natural phenomena. A lot of my conceptual and formal inspiration comes from observations of the natural world and our place within it - how we draw from it, coexist with it, and the impact we will have on it.

The Viga Series, in its appearance, marks a slight departure from much of the work I have done to date. The use of pre-existing natural materials in the form of the ancient wooden ceiling joists is new for me. Although formally distinct from previous works, conceptually it is a continuation of my reflections on us as a species and our place in the world.

In another sense the beams can be considered objets trouvés - similar in some ways to the store-bought plastic products I used in the Meltdown Series at the start of my career. The most engaging aspect of the beams - and the reason I was drawn to working with them - is the amount of character and history they possess and exhibit. The notches carved to accommodate other beams; the old twisted nails; the splashes of paint; the insect boreholes and worn-down ends, all hint at a rich history of utilitarian function and the many lives lived beneath them. They are a record of human construction from a time before plastics were invented, when everything would have been built and carved by hand. Now stripped from their place and deprived of their raison d’être, they have become odd artefacts, disassociated from their original context and historical purpose.

I imagined a future where these beams might reemerge - a time where our present era would be ancient history and all the material innovations of our time had become assimilated with and indistinguishable from nature. A flattening of human history into a single era - the Anthropocene - where synthetic minerals and inorganic deposits grow in and on natural materials. The Viga sculptures are an amalgam of the natural and the manmade, their totemic appearance dispassionately assessing the legacy of the human epoch.

Click here to schedule a viewing

CAROLINE BLACKBURN
COMPOSING CLAY

Twentieth Gallery is pleased to present Composing Clay, a series of new works by Caroline Blackburn.

Trained as a painter, Caroline's sculptural ceramic work focuses on bringing freshness and immediacy to each piece through color, form, and surface texture. Every work is one of a kind whether it is thrown on a wheel, hand built, or a combination of both techniques. While investigating an interest in form, the work produces a continual shift between surface, texture, color and object.

Blackburn uses a wide vocabulary of glazes to accomplish the intense active surface in each piece. She juxtaposes color, texture and drawing using a variety of materials to create a painterly surface and sublime effect, reflecting phenomenon found in nature. When glazing a work, she approaches it as a canvas. She may first apply a slip, draw on the work with a ceramic pencil, and then hand-paint each piece to accomplish a painterly effect. Often as a final step, she will grind selected areas of the surface with a stone.

ABOUT THE ARTIST Caroline Blackburn is an award-winning Los Angeles sculptural ceramic artist. Her vessels explore a deeply held interest in abstract painting, architecture, and nature. Blackburn studied Art History and Studio Arts graduating magna cum laude from Boston College and earned her MFA at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.

Click here to schedule a viewing

ADAM COURT / OKHA   AMBIGUOUS FORMS

Twentieth Exhibitions is pleased to announce Ambiguous Forms, a series of new works by Adam Court of OKHA, based in Cape Town, South Africa. Grounded in a strong connection to nature and material process, the works present striking compositions of sand-cast alloys of aluminum, brass and copper with large slabs of carbonized stone pine and other exotic hewn and polished timbers. Rather than forcing these organic materials into predetermined forms, the natural aspects of the tree’s growth and the fluidity of molten metal contribute to their mysterious and unexpected shape, form and beauty. Movement becomes frozen, captured, crystallized in material expression. Liquid into solid, growth into stillness, each piece presents a poetic harmony of contrasts that is both organic and geometric, formed by a human participation and intuition that willingly surrenders to the forces of nature while also embracing the subtlety of its mystery.
Click here to schedule a viewing

MATTIA BIAGI   ACHROMIC GYPSUM

Mattia Biagi, known for his work in tar covered objects, changes course in this series to explore a more direct, tactile, raw exploration of material and form. Rather than covering objects, these works are created from primal dust and gesture, nothingness formed into being. Hands can’t touch hot tar, but by working in raw plaster, Biagi is able to create form directly by sculpting it, representing a return to the body’s expressiveness and the desire to create meaning and being from one’s own hands.
Click here to schedule a viewing

PAST EXHIBITIONS