Brisbane Premiere For Major International Artist Spencer Finch

Brisbane Premiere For Major International Artist Spencer Finch

Work by American artist Spencer Finch will be seen for the first time in Australia when his solo exhibition opens at the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA) later this month.

'Spencer Finch: As if the sea should part and show a further sea' includes important works from the past 15 years across a diverse range of media including photography, watercolour, installation and video, and is on display from 28 February until 8 June 2009.

Queensland Art Gallery Director Tony Ellwood said the exhibition included Finch's recent video work recreating the light of the setting sun using stills from the epic John Wayne western, The Searchers.

Finch will also present a major new site-specific installation, CIE 529/418 (Candlelight) 2009, in the curved glass Gibson entrance at Queensland Art Gallery.

At 2.00pm on Sunday March 1, Spencer Finch will give a floor talk on his work in the New Media Gallery at GoMA.

Mr Ellwood said the Gallery was extremely proud to be presenting the exhibition, new installation and accompanying publication.

'We are delighted to have Finch in Brisbane from February 20 to install the site-specific work that will transform the Gallery's Gibson entrance into a giant light filter.

'The installation shifts the Brisbane light to match that of a candle Finch observed burning at night in his Brooklyn studio. It will be a precisely calibrated and highly poetic intervention in the space,' Mr Ellwood said.

'All of the works in Finch's exhibition reflect the artist's interest in the peculiarities and complexities of perception. Light is the pre-eminent subject of his practice and he considers how our experience of it is modulated by geography, time, history and memory.

'It is an exciting opportunity for audiences to view new work being exhibited for the first time by this important artist, along with major early works on paper and important installations such as The light at Lascaux (cave entrance), September 29, 2005 2005, which recreates the light at the entrance to the famous cave in the Dordogne with an extraordinary formation of fluorescent lights,' he said.

Finch has recently shown in group exhibitions including the 2nd Turin Triennale, 2008; 'Colour after Klein: Rethinking Colour in Modern and Contemporary Art', Barbican Art Gallery, London, 2005; and the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 2004.

His work is held in the collections of Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Museum fr Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main; MASS MoCA, North Adams; Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, New York; Art Institute of Chicago.

The Gallery has produced a special limited edition publication for the exhibition, that includes a unique artist's edition and a poster depicting CIE 529/418 Candlelight installed in the Queensland Art Gallery. It is available at the Gallery of Modern Art Store and online at www.australianartbooksonline.com.au

Media Inquiries
Amelia Gundelach
Media Coordinator
Queensland Art Gallery
+61 (0) 7 3840 7162
+61 (0) 404 994 985
[email protected]


SOURCE: Queensland Art Gallery