Galería Javier López is pleased to present the first solo exhibition by British artist Liam Gillick (1964, Aylesbury, United Kingdom) in Spain. The exhibition coincides with the celebration of the Spanish art fair ARCO 2001 in Madrid.
Gillick, whose overwhelming production includes a large bibliography of critical essays, operates in the open terrain which he shared with other artists of his generation - Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Philippe Parreno, Jorge Pardo, Rirkrit Tiravanija or Xavier Veilhan - in which the principal sociocultural references make themselves present within a body of artistic work minimalist and conceptual roots. Gillick’s colored Plexiglass screens or modular units framed in aluminium and termed “Discussion Islands” instantly recalled Donald Judd’s primary structures. Like many of Judd’s constructions, Gillick’s objects hold a complex relation between sculpture, furniture and architectural elements. These beautiful yet cold and post-utopian structures leave the viewer with a kind of absence rather than a presence. Further, these modular units in their intent to organize social space question all communication possibilities both at a public level and at an artistic level.
For this exhibition at Galería Javier López, Liam Gillick has produced an innovative installation that presents for the first time texts and wall drawings. These works are displayed along side his characteristic Plexiglas structures.
Liam Gillick has collaborated in principal collective exhibitions amongst them are those held at: the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville in Paris, Documenta X in Kassel, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Le Magasin de Grenoble or the ICA in London. Highlights of his solo shows include those organized by: The Kunstverein in Hamburg, Hayward Gallery in London, Le Consortium at Dijon or the Frankfurter Kunstverein, in Frankfurt.
