Mike Nelson selects from the V-A-C Collection

Innovative exhibition/installation at the Whitechapel Gallery of figurative sculpture from the V-A-C Collection from Moscow curated by installation artist Mike Nelson.

This consisted of a large platform on the floor with an interesting collection of sculptures arranged on it. There was a nice Giacometti woman in the middle, a William de Kooning torso sitting on the edge and a Marino Maroni head and shoulders. The way the items were displayed made you look at them in relation to cone another and objects in their own right. Putting them all on one level seemed to make who the artist was less important and the work speak for itself.

I loved the largest work “Camp Fire” by Althamer Ognisko which consisted of four pieces two of which were a sort of broken vehicle of some sort but the other two were wonderful life sized figures with realistic faces but almost skeletal bodies covered in badges, They had an odd mummy like feeling and yet I found them strangely endearing.

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