Amalia Pica
For Shower Singers
14 December 2012–10 February 2013
Private Preview: 13 December 2012, 6:30pm
Modern Art Oxford
30 Pembroke Street, Oxford OX1 1BP
Admission free
T 01865 722733
For Shower Singers at Modern Art Oxford is a major presentation of work by the Argentinean-born, London-based artist Amalia Pica.
Playful and celebratory, Pica’s sculpture and works on paper—many of which will be shown in the UK for the first time—explore some of the underlying social concerns that relate to our daily experience of life. Examining the nature of participation and interaction between people, her works have a vitality and hand-made quality, which often belie more complex social relations, in particular the importance of communication and the interaction between individuals.
Alongside work from the past six years, the exhibition also presents a newly commissioned sculpture, which takes the form of a plinth bearing the oxide traces of the sculpture it once supported. Pica’s plinth is as much about the object itself as it is suggestive of its absent counterpart.
Exhibition work
Strangers on Common Land (2012), a large-scale work made from black and white photocopied enlargements of a photograph, shows two strangers standing in an open landscape, connected by the line of bunting that they hold and the common land on which they stand; a metaphor for the possibility of coming together through cultural celebration.
Highlighting Pica’s fascination for the use and misuse of language. Catachresis (2011–2012) is a series of sculptures that denote something for which there is no name (catachresis), such as the leg of a table or the elbow of a pipe. Pica uses these distinct and contrasting found materials to construct eloquent and characterful sculptural forms; these objects become tools of communication and take on identities of their own.
The exhibition continues a conversation which began with her first solo UK exhibition at Chisenhale Gallery, London, earlier this year.
Pica’s profile continues to rise both in the UK and internationally. In recent years she has exhibited across Europe and America, most notably at the 54th Venice Biennale, the New Museum Triennial, New York, and as New Generation Art Prize nominated artist.
Biography
Amalia Pica (b. 1978, Argentina) lives and works in London. Recent solo exhibitions include her first UK solo show at Chisenhale Gallery (2012), Chronic Listeners, Kunsthalle Sankt Gallen (2012); Marc Foxx Gallery, Los Angeles (2011); C-salen, Malmo Konsthall, Sweden (2010); Galerie Diana Stigter, Amsterdam (2010). Pica was one of the participating artists in the 54th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2011) and exhibited in The Ungovernables, New Museum Triennial, New York. Pica was awarded the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists 2011 and this year is a nominee for the New Generation Art Prize.
For further information and images please contact Hannah Evans, Modern Art Oxford Communications Manager hannah.evans [at] modernartoxford.org.uk.
Contact for Modern Art Oxford for interviews and photos:
Hannah Evans, Communications Manager, Hannah.evans [at] modernartoxford.org.uk.
Modern Art Oxford is supported by Arts Council England and Oxford City Council.
