Gillian Wearing
| Gillian Wearing | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1963 Birmingham, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Field | Conceptual art, installation art |
| Training | Goldsmiths |
| Movement | Young British Artists |
| Influenced by | Pablo Picasso |
| Awards | Turner Prize |
Gillian Wearing OBE RA (born 1963) is an English conceptual artist, one of the YBAs, and winner of the annual British fine arts award, The Turner Prize, in 1997. On 11 December 2007, Wearing was elected as lifetime member of the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
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Life and career [edit]
Early life [edit]
Gillian Wearing was born in Birmingham. She attended Dartmouth High School in Great Barr, Birmingham. She moved to Chelsea, London to study art at the Chelsea College of Art.
1990s [edit]
In the early 90s. Wearing started putting together photography exhibitions that were based around the idea of photographing anonymous strangers in the street who she had asked to hold up a piece of paper with a message on it. Of these "confessional" pieces, Wearing stated,
I decided that I wanted people to feel protected when they talked about certain things in their life that they wouldn’t want the public that knows them to know. I can understand that sort of holding on to things—it’s kind of part of British society to hold things in. I always think of Britain as being a place where you’re meant to keep your secrets—you should never tell your neighbors or tell anyone. Things are changing now, because the culture’s changed and the Internet has brought people out. We have Facebook and Twitter where people tell you small details of their life.[1]
One of Wearing's first UK shows was held at the Chisenhale Gallery in east London, in June 1997.
2000s and 2010s [edit]
In 2000, Wearing made a film, Drunk (2000), which shows four drunk men staggering around a studio.
In Wearing’s Broad Street (2001), she documents the behavior of typical teenagers, in British society, who go out at night and drink large amounts of alcohol. Wearing shows teenagers partying at various clubs and bars along Broad Street in Birmingham. Wearing follows these teenagers demonstrating how alcohol contributes to their loss of inhibitions, insecurities, and control.[2]
In 2003, Wearing caused controversy with her cover for The Guardian's G2 supplement, consisting solely of the handwritten words "Fuck Cilla Black".[3] The cover illustrated an article by Stuart Jeffries complaining about the cruelty of modern television.
The themes of modern television were further explored in Wearing's recent project Family History (2006) commissioned by Film and Video Umbrella, and accompanied by a publication on the project.
Wearing's 2011 show People (2005–2011) at Tanya Bonakdar Gallery included work ranging from video, to photographic portraiture, to installation and sculpture. Snapshot (2005) is a series of seven single-projection videos framed by a candy-colored array of plasma screens, each depicting different stages of the female life cycle—from the innocence of early childhood to old age.[4]
Wearing was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2011 Birthday Honours for services to art.[5]
In 2012, a major retrospective of her work was held at Whitechapel Gallery, London (28 March-17 June 2012), which surveyed her career and premiered new films and sculptures. The exhibition was organised with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf and supported by Maja Hoffmann, Vicky Hughes and John Smith, and Dr Naomi Milgrom AO. An accompanying monograph was published by Ridinghouse and included texts by curator Daniel F. Herrmann, Doris Krystof, Bernhart Schwenk and David Deamer.[6]
In 2013, Wearing showed her exhibit PEOPLE: Selected Parkett Artists' Editions from 1984-2013 Parkett Space, Zurich, Switzerland(9 February-11 March 2013)[7]
Gillian Wearing is represented by Maureen Paley in London[8] and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery in New York.[9]
Personal life [edit]
Wearing lives and works in London. Her current partner is fellow British artist Michael Landy.[10]
Notes [edit]
- ^ William Corwin, "In Conversation: Gillian Wearing with William Corwin" the Brooklyn Rail, September 2012.http://brooklynrail.org/2012/09/art/gillian-wearing-with-william-corwin
- ^ Martin, Sylvia: "Broad Street", Video Art, page 94. Taschen, 2006.
- ^ Katz, Ian (8 January 2003). "Were we right to do this?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2010-08-13.
- ^ Rooney, Kara L. (June 2011). "Gillian Wearing: People". The Brooklyn Rail.
- ^ The London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 59808. p. 13. 11 June 2011.
- ^ "Gillian Wearing monograph". Ridinghouse.
- ^ http://www.regenprojects.com/artists/gillian-wearing/bio/
- ^ (undated) "Gillian Wearing artist page; Maureen Paley gallery (London).". Retrieved 2010-08-13.
- ^ (undated) "Tanya Bonakdar Gallery artists page; Tanya Bonakdar Gallery (New York).". Retrieved 2011-01-27.
- ^ Rachel Campbell-Johnston (2008-10-07). "Michael Landy - the man who had nothing". London: The Times. Retrieved 2008-10-22.
External links [edit]
- Wearing interviewed by Matt Lippiatt for The Times
- Wearing interviewed by Leo Edelstein for the Journal of Contemporary Art
- Wearing interviewed by Grady Turner for Bomb Magazine
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- 1963 births
- Living people
- English artists
- Turner Prize winners
- Alumni of Goldsmiths, University of London
- Alumni of Chelsea College of Art & Design
- Video artists
- People from Birmingham, West Midlands
- English photographers
- British women artists
- Royal Academicians
- Officers of the Order of the British Empire
- Alumni of the University of the Arts
- Women photographers
