This will be the first AA Bronson's solo exhibition in the UK and will consist of only one work, his portrait Felix, June 5th, 1994. New York artist Joe Scanlan will transform the gallery into a mini-processing plant, to produce Paydirt.
AA Bronson
5 February - 23 March
First Floor Galleries
Together with Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal, as part of the acclaimed group General Idea, Canadian artist AA Bronson has exhibited throughout the world for more than thirty years. This will be his first solo exhibition in the UK and will consist of only one work, his portrait Felix, June 5th, 1994.
This is a vast photograph, taken of Felix Partz a few hours after he died from an AIDS related illness. It is one of the most powerful images to have been produced by an artist, anywhere in the world, in recent years. The image embodies an extraordinary tension between an assertive decorative quality - a Klimt-like collision of patterns and bright colours, and profound subject matter. Bronson's gesture of photographing his close friend in death is brutal in its record of the facts yet beautifully tender.
Exhibition supported by the Canadian High Commission, London and the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canada.
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Joe Scanlan - Paydirt
5 February - 23 March
Second Floor Galleries
For his first UK solo exhibition, New York artist Joe Scanlan will transform the gallery into a mini-processing plant, to produce Paydirt, a high grade potting soil researched and developed by the artist over the last five years. Composed of consumer by-products from the Birmingham area, the soil is repackaged and resold to visitors as part of the exhibition.
Revealing the artist's preoccupation with the patterns of consumer culture, the project forms part of Scanlan's ongoing ambition to create a commercial product that is seen as a work of art. A reconciliation between industry and the environment, Paydirt proposes how art can be both meaningful and profitable.
Exhibition supported by Musee d'Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg, Winterbourne Botanical Gardens, University of Birmingham and Creative Capital Foundation, New York.
Image: a work by AA Bronson
Ikon Gallery
1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace
Birmingham B1 2HS
T: +44 (0) 121 248 0708
F: +44 (0) 121 248 0709