Works Exhibited
About
Gagosian is pleased to present Close at Hand, an exhibition of modern and contemporary sculpture.
Focusing on intimate gesture and free experimentation, Close at Hand reveals a breadth of formal, conceptual, and material approaches to sculpture, including assemblages, ceramics, and found objects. The exhibition presents varied embodiments of energy, motion, and time—both material and immaterial—within the purview of the human body.
Formalist oppositions between art and object are played out in sculptures by Anthony Caro and Tony Smith. In Table Piece Z-82 ‘Clarinet’ (1982), Caro orchestrates rusted and varnished metal components into a greater abstract whole, while in Mistake (1963), Smith proposes a singular geometric form, which abandons representational clues in order to consider the classic minimalist construct of spectacle and viewer.
Exploration of new materials can be seen in the making strange of common objects through a shift in their perceived properties. With Corner (1992), Richard Artschwager creates a cartoonish illusion that three planks of wood-patterned Formica, cinched tightly with a metal bracket, are exploding from a corner of the room. Rachel Whiteread’s Untitled (On / Off) (2001) a cast light-switch bank in stainless steel, further blurs the line between reality and representation, while Tatiana Trouvé’s Equivalences (2014), bronze cast refuse such as water bottles, cans, and scraps of cardboard are suspended in perfect balance from thin wire cables.
Gestural aspects of the sculptural process are captured in the surfaces of works by John Chamberlain and Franz West. Lucio Fontana’s Concetto Spaziale Cratere (1968) is a hand-formed porcelain sculpture with a jagged aperture that reveals its white interior, as if it has been shot through by one of Chris Burden’s Gold Bullets (2003), taxonomically arranged in two vitrines nearby.
In Conversation
Oscar Murillo and Ben Luke on Franz West
In conjunction with Franz West: Papier, the gallery’s presentation of paper-based works by Franz West at Frieze Masters 2023, artist Oscar Murillo and arts writer, critic, and broadcaster Ben Luke sit down to discuss Murillo’s collaboration in selecting the works on view, as well as his personal experiences meeting the late artist in London.
Rachel Whiteread: … And the Animals Were Sold
An installation by Rachel Whiteread in the Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo, Italy, commissioned by Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo and cocurated by Lorenzo Giusti and Sara Fumagalli, opened in June of 2023 and ran into the fall. Conceived in relation to the city, the architecture of the site, and the history of the region, it comprised sixty sculptures made with local types of stone. Fumagalli writes on the exhibition and architect Luca Cipelletti speaks with Whiteread.
Urs Fischer: Wave
In this video, Urs Fischer elaborates on the creative process behind his public installation Wave, at Place Vendôme, Paris.
Sterling Ruby: The Frenetic Beat
Ester Coen meditates on the dynamism of Sterling Ruby’s recent projects, tracing parallels between these works and the histories of Futurism, Constructivism, and the avant-garde.
Sterling Ruby: TURBINES
Join Sterling Ruby in his Los Angeles studio as he works on new abstract paintings ahead of his exhibition TURBINES at Gagosian in New York.
Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2022
The Winter 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on its cover.
