From 5 October 2024, Kunsthal Rotterdam will be presenting the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of the British artist Thomas J Price (1981, London). With multidisciplinary work, spanning sculpture, performance, photography, and animation, Price constantly bends the conventions of material, scale, and presentation. The artist focuses on themes of representation and humanism and how we relate and respond to power structures within society. In this large-scale retrospective, the Kunsthal will be showing a wide variety of works from Price’s two-decade-spanning career: from the early performance ‘Licked’ (2001) to recent sculptures such as ‘A Place Beyond’ (2022).
The exhibition begins with Price’s video documentation of performance Licked (2001), which shows him licking a gallery wall over the course of three days. The artist conceived the work as an expression of presence in absence, of being in a space without being seen. Although to date this remains Price’s only performance piece, it continues to have a major impact on his multidisciplinary work and way of thinking. At the Kunsthal, all disciplines from his oeuvre are present, including the photographic work ‘Hand Arrangement (The Complex Journeys of a Simple Form)’ (2023), and the more recent abstract painting ‘Momentary Interface’ (2022).
Psychological portraits
Central to Price’s figurative sculptures is the following question: what does it mean to be acknowledged in society and what does it mean if you are not? Price embodies everyday, fictional characters in his psychological portraits, realised through a mix of digital technology and traditional sculptural techniques. Often using 3D-scanning to capture a variety of poses and facial expressions of individuals, he is able to construct and manipulate multiple sculptural elements simultaneously to create a single image of an imaginary person, and confronts the viewer with stereotypes surrounding perception and identity. An example of this is the almost four-metre-high sculpture Moments Contained (2023), which stands in front of Rotterdam Central Station. It depicts a Black woman wearing Nike trainers with her fists clenched in the pockets of her sweatpants. Do viewers recognise themselves, someone they know, or does she confront them with their own prejudices?
Amalgam characters
Price uses his sculptures as a form of critique against the traditional statues that often place influential people from history on a pedestal. Although sometimes monumental in scale, the characters the artist depicts are modest and instantly recognisable in their everyday attire and informal poses. In the public space, Price intentionally refrains from placing his amalgam characters on a pedestal. Instead, he allows them to stand with both feet firmly on the ground, as is demonstrated by the large sculpture ‘Reaching Out’ (2020), which will be standing in front of the Kunsthal entrance during the exhibition. It is a portrait of a young woman who is looking at her mobile phone, constantly digitally connected to the world while at the same time isolated from her immediate surroundings.
Innovative versus classical
Price combines innovative methods with classical techniques, such as bronze casting, gilding, or sculpting in marble. Examples of this in the exhibition are the ongoing series of gilded heads ‘Untitled (Icons)’ started in 2017, or the pink marble ‘Through a Steady Gaze’ from 2023. Bronze, gold, and marble are often chosen due to their established hierarchy within the canon of art history, while the figures they represent are ordinary. In this way Price is subtly undermining the expectations of the viewer: he recalibrates the image we have of Black people in contemporary society and art. Price doesn’t exclusively work with traditional materials.
Thomas J Price
Thomas J Price is one of the most important contemporary British artists of his generation. He studied at both the Chelsea College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. Price was commissioned by Hackney Council, London to create the first permanent public sculptures to celebrate the contribution of the Windrush generation and their descendants in the UK, unveiled in June 2022. His solo presentation, ‘Witness’, in collaboration with The Studio Museum in Harlem was on view in Marcus Garvey Park, New York from 2021 – 2022. In 2023, his solo exhibition ‘Beyond Measure’ was shown at the gallery Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles. Between 3 December 2023 and 7 April 2024, Price took part in the National Gallery of Victoria’s Triennial in Melbourne, Australia. And until May 2024, the exhibition ‘Thomas Price at the V&A’ will be on view at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Catalogue
The exhibition will be accompanied by the catalogue Thomas J Price. Matter of Place (29.90 EUR). It is now available for purchase in the Kunsthal webshop and will be available in the Kunsthal store from October.
Press
Exhibition partners
VSB Fonds
Sinds zijn start in 1990 heeft VSBfonds vele initiatieven en projecten ondersteund die bijdragen aan de kwaliteit van de Nederlandse samenleving. Sinds 1990 heeft VSBfonds voor 661 miljoen euro aan maatschappelijke initiatieven en projecten ondersteund.
Fonds 21
www.fonds21.nl
Nationale-Nederlanden
www.nn.nl
Erasmus Stichting
The Erasmus Foundation aims to promote education, the arts and science in Rotterdam through financial contributions. It does this in accordance with the wishes of Dr Elie van Rijckevorsel, who founded the Erasmusstichting on 17 July 1911.
