18th November 2009 – 31st January 2010
Monumental, impassioned and emotive: Lorenzo Quinn’s striking new exhibition Equilibrium opens at Halcyon Gallery
Lorenzo Quinn’s Equilibrium will be the major exhibition at Halcyon’s flagship five storey gallery space, 24 Bruton Street, from 18th November 2009 until 31st January 2010. Renowned worldwide for being one of the most influential and avant-garde sculptors of his time, Quinn’s Equilibrium involves a new body of sculpture works alongside some of his most powerful pieces from previous unseen collections.
In addition to the exhibition, one of Quinn’s most enduring works Give and Take III will spend six months on public display in Berkeley Square until May 2010.
Celebrating the opening of this important show, the Gallery will host a ‘Meet the Artist’ day on Saturday 21, with Lorenzo Quinn discussing the inspiration for his new work, his poetry and his vision. The Gallery will also be open on Sunday 22, from 11am until 5pm.
Quinn’s works are internationally acclaimed. Major commissions include the United Nations, the Vatican and a sculpture for Bacardi to honour the hometown of its founder in Sitges, Spain. His cultural influence has been recognised in an iconic advert for Absolut Vodka, entitled Absolut Lorenzo, part of a campaign featuring celebrated international artists. Quinn has received widespread success in the highly regarded Middle Eastern art market. Highlights include his iconic sculpture Rise Through Education in Doha, Qatar (2005) and a new commission to create an Olympic Tower, to be unveiled in Doha in 2010.
For Equilibrium, Quinn has created new pieces including What Came First?, Love and Home Sweet Home.
What Came First? depicts male and female forms, each within an egg-shaped marble hemisphere, displaying the sculptor’s rich figurative symbolism at its finest.
The Love series of kinetic sculptures features paired hands, a recurring theme in Quinn’s work, representing the four stages of a relationship. Hypnotic and graceful, the works evoke the hands of strolling lovers. Considered the greatest challenge for an artist depicting the human form, for Quinn hands convey the intimacy of human interaction in a simple, powerful way.
In Home Sweet Home, he uses the female form cocooned in barbed wire to represent the claustrophobia and isolation of victims of domestic abuse. Quinn and his wife are active in their work for charities supporting victims of domestic abuse.
Accompanied by his most popular works such as Adam and Eve, Force of Nature and the colossal Hand of God, Equilibrium presents an oeuvre of work mature in style and demonstrative of Quinn’s visceral empathy and technical accomplishment.
Poetry, family and society all feed into the creative process of his work and the immediate emotional response his works produce mirror this heart-felt input. Quinn comments: ‘My inspiration comes from the everyday life, books or poems that I read, from my encounters with people and from my own experiences; sculpture is a part of who I am. I feel honoured and proud to be working with Halcyon Gallery to put together this major exhibition and to share my work with the world.’
Paul Green, President of Halcyon Gallery comments: ‘This exhibition is a culmination of our decade-long partnership with Lorenzo Quinn, and Equilibrium is validation of his growing status. We are also delighted that his celebrated piece ‘Give and Take III’ will be accessible to all Berkeley Square visitors until May 2010.’
