Un exhibition to present a series of new egg-tempera paintings he called "gritty little gems, tiny icon-like works of Cylopic figures which he has made in secret over the past 2 years.
We are delighted to announce our first exhibition of 2008, and the 14th in our
series of 26 exhibition projects which began in July 2007 and will end in July 2008.
Each of the 26 installations presents a conversation between one invited artist and
a counterpoint of their choice. In August 2008 we will publish a book documenting
the year’s exhibitions.
Brian Catling (born in London, 1948) is an extraordinary artist, but this is just
one of many guises; he is also a published poet and academic, and is currently
Professor of Fine Art at the Ruskin in Oxford. Though he has taught sculpture for
many years, his work most often takes the form of video or live performance and
these separate activities frequently come together to create events which resolutely
defy categorisation. His work manifests an uncompromising desire to press the
boundaries of what we call art, and what it can and should do. A performance at the
Serpentine Gallery in 1994 titled 'The Blindings', lasted an epic 9 days, and
'Antix' at Matt’s Gallery, London in 2006 evolved slowly over 16 consecutive nights,
the artist having first made his arrival in a homemade boat which he sailed up the
Thames from his house in Oxfordshire.
We are honoured that Catling has chosen this exhibition to present a series of new
egg-tempera paintings he calls his “gritty little gems”, tiny icon-like works of
Cylopic figures which he has made in secret over the past 2 years. Though these have
developed partly in response to his live performances, the artist has kept them
deliberately distinct from his usual practice. These portraits of what should be
monsters, possess a strange beauty and sympathy, and stem directly from an earlier
series of paintings of the unfortunate 19th century Edinburgh ‘idiot’ Robert
McFarlane or “Bobby Awl” who has long held a morbid fascination for Catling. The
artist has closely guarded these works until now but we will show them for the first
time alongside the original 19th century death mask of this bizarre and mysterious
character from Edinburgh’s past, generously loaned from the Collection of the
Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh.
Brian Catling has made performances and installations across the world, and in 2001
founded the international performance collective 'The Wolf in the Winter'. He has
published eight books of poetry with a new volume based around an imagined
conversation between the artist and the death mask of “Bobby Awl” released by the
Etruscan press in 2007.
Brian Catling will be reading from this new publication at the preview of the
exhibition on Saturday 12 January at 2pm.
There will be a short performance reading by Brian Catling from 2pm on Saturday 12th
January, please come along.
The exhibition will be open every day from 10am to 5pm within the dates of the show.
We are grateful to the National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh for their assistance
with this exhibition.
Opening Saturday 12 January 2008
Ingleby Gallery
6 Carlton Terrace, Edinburgh
Free admission