“You can’t really pick your medium. Your medium picks you” says acclaimed sculptor Saad Qureshi. Today, we present a selections of shows in which contemporary creatives have explored their medium to the fullest. Included is the largest survey of work from Turner Prize nominee Anya Gallaccio, two inaugural shows at new galleries and an opportunity to see miniature work from the stellar participants in The Royal Society of Sculpture’s 10 Gram Challenge, including Antony Gormley, Cornelia Parker and Rana Begum.
Anya Gallaccio: Preserve | Turner Contemporary | Until 26 January
Turner Contemporary presents the largest retrospective to date of Turner prize nominee Anya Gallaccio (b. 1963). Renowned for her innovative use of organic, ephemeral materials – such as apples, flowers and chalk – the British sculptor explores concepts of transformation and impermanence. Over the years, she has reshaped our understanding of contemporary sculpture. Anya Gallaccio: Preserve spans three decades of a trailblazing practice, restaging iconic sculptures and unveiling a new site-specific commission.
A Garden of Promise and Dissent | The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum | 28 October – 16 March
Gardens offer solace, community, nutrition and well-being. They can provide safe spaces for rebellion and empowerment, alleviate climate change and widen access to land use – providing localised food resources. A Garden of Promise and Dissent inaugurates a newly renovated campus and Sculpture Garden at The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Connecticut. This intergenerational group exhibition of 21 artists addresses the animation of the “garden” as a site of private expression (poetics) and public action (praxis).
Sound and Silence: Takis Dana | L’Appartement | Until 21 December
L’Appartement is a new art space set to open this autumn in Geneva, Switzerland. The gallery’s inaugural exhibition, Sound and Silence, features 24 works by the legendary Greek visual artist Takis (b. 1925) and 18 pieces by Swiss-Egyptian sculptor Yves Dana (b. 1959), with some works debuting in Geneva for the first time. It’s a show that invites visitors to consider the timeless importance of art in a world fixated on pursuing the new, reflecting on the notion that innovation is essential for artistic significance.
Saad Qureshi: A Handful of Paradise | I DE V / l’étrangère | Until 14 December
“One of our most pensive and poetic artists.” Here The Observer’s Laura Cumming introduces award-winning sculptor Saad Qureshi (b. 1986), a contemporary artist making work that is beautiful and lyrical. Visitors will experience this in Saad Qureshi: A Handful of Paradise, the inaugural show at I DE V / l’étrangère. Here, Qureshi poses the question: what does paradise mean for us today? In 2019, he asked this question to people of all faiths and none across the UK. Three large mindscapes evoke the answers to this question.
10gram Challenge | Thomas Dane Gallery | 23 – 24 October
Rana Begum. Anya Gallaccio. Antony Gormley. Cornelia Parker. Saad Qureshi. These are just some of the artists participating in the 10 Gram Challenge, a competition run by The Royal Society of Sculptors and Milwyn Casting Ltd. In total, 42 acclaimed artists create a sculpture out of a 10g of wax, which is then cast in bronze and presented in a selling exhibition at Thomas Dane Gallery. Profits raised will support the renovation of the Society’s Dora House, as well as the creation of studio and community workshop spaces.
Words: Diana Bestwish Tetteh
Image Credits:
- Anya Gallaccio, I Will Walk Down To The End With You If You Will Come All The Way With Me, 2007, hand-knotted hop twine, square knots 3 x 30.2 m. Installation view, Anya Gallaccio: Comfort and Conversation, 23 February – 5 April 2008, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam. © Anya Gallaccio. Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Annet Gelink Gallery.
- Yves Dana, STÈLE XI, 1997, Bronze. E.A 4/4. 115 x 35 x 10 cm 45.28 x 13.78 x 3.94 in.
- Yves Dana, TERRES PROMISES, 2022, Sandstone and Iron, 115 x 40 x 22 cm 45.28 x 15.75 x 8.66 in.
- Anya Gallaccio, Beautiful Minds, 2015-2017, aluminium, clay, pump, software. Installation view, Anya Gallaccio: Beautiful Minds, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, 3 February–25 March 2017. © Anya Gallaccio. Courtesy the artist and Thomas Dane Gallery. Photo: Luke A. Walker.
- Conrad Shawcross. 10gram Challenge 2024. Image courtesy Royal Sociey of Sculptors.
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