Gavin Turk: Who What When Where How & Why

Fun exhibition at the Newport Street Gallery of work by Gavin Turk.

This was a good overview spanning 25 years of Turk’s work. I’d seen odd pieces by him before but never really looked at the development of his art. I like the way he plays with the idea of the creative act and uses his own signature to look at identify and value in art. I liked the large Pollock style canvas’s which turn out not to be random splats but hundreds of his signatures one over the other. These work beautifully with the large mirrored cubes which multiplied the images around the room.

I found the room of figures a bit creepy as I have a bit of a thing about wax works. These were a series of models of him in different guises and in different materials. I loved the great bronze one with a shower head which regularly pumped water over the figure. I wasn’t too sure about the tramp like one with no display case.

My favourite room was the last one which featured works which play with the idea of rubbish. The objects all looked like trash but were made of painted bronze and included realistic bin bags and tiny apple cores and match boxes. I got talking to a nice attendant who challenged me to find the only real item in the room. I had to give up! It was the squashed Pepsi tin in the corner with Turk’s signature on it. It’s always great to find a friendly attendant who is interested in the work.

Closes on 19 March 2017

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