Conrad Shawcross Paradigm Fracture, 2018 (detail)
An exhibition of new works by Conrad Shawcross. After the Explosion, Before the Collapse features new Fracture sculptures and two new mechanical works, in addition to a sequence of unique photographic prints created by firing a laser through a series of faults in fragments of glass. United by an aesthetic akin to that of scientific models, the abstract works on view continue to deal with notions of time, entropy and disappearance.
Conrad Shawcross: After the Explosion, Before the Collapse Private view: Wednesday 12 September, 6–8pm
Exhibition: 13 September–27 October 2018 Victoria Miro Mayfair victoria-miro.com
About The Artist
Conrad Shawcross was born in 1977 in London, where he currently lives and works.
Shawcross has undertaken numerous prestigious commissions. In June 2017, the Royal Academy of Arts and St Pancras International unveiled the major site-specific installation, The Interpretation of Movement (a 9:8 in blue), as part of the Terrace Wires series. The work was on view until December 2017. Unveiled in autumn 2016, The Optic Cloak is a major architectural intervention for the Greenwich Peninsula low carbon Energy Centre. Paradigm, 2016, is a permanent installation which marked the inauguration of The Francis Crick Institute in King’s Cross. Three Perpetual Chords, 2015, is a series of permanent sculptures commissioned for Dulwich. The Dappled Light of the Sun, 2015, first installed in the Annenberg Courtyard of the Royal Academy of Arts, London as part of the Summer Exhibition 2015, is an immersive work comprising branching cloud-like forms made of thousands of tetrahedrons.
Earlier commissions and artist projects include The Ada Project, an ongoing series of musical commissions between Shawcross and leading contemporary composers, which was conceived for the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2013, and subsequently travelled to venues in Tasmania, London, Hong Kong and Denmark. Shawcross was one of three contemporary artists invited to create works inspired by Titian’s masterpieces for the project Metamorphosis: Titian 2012, an ambitious collaboration with the National Gallery and Royal Ballet. He was Artist in Residence at the Science Museum, London, from 2009–2011, and his first public realm commission Space Trumpet, installed in the atrium of the refurbished Unilever Building in London in 2007, won the Art & Work 2008 Award for a Work of Art Commissioned for a Specific Site in a Working Environment. In 2009 Shawcross was awarded the Illy prize for best solo presentation at Art Brussels, and elected as a Royal Academician in 2013.
Solo exhibitions have been held at institutions including the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut (until 21 October 2018); New Art Centre, Roche Court (2015); ARTMIA Foundation, Beijing (2014); MUDAM, Luxembourg (2012); Science Museum, London (2011–2012); Turner Contemporary, Margate (2011); and Oxford Science Park (2010). His work has recently been exhibited nationally and internationally as part of the Summer Exhibition 2018, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2018); Socle du Monde Biennale 2017, HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Denmark (2017); Into the Unknown: A Journey Through Science Fiction, Barbican, London (2017); Summer Exhibition 2017, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2017); The Universe and Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2016–2017), travelling to ArtScience Museum, Singapore (2017); GLOBALE: Exo-Evolution, ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe (2015–2016); Art Out Loud, Chatsworth House, Derbyshire (2015); Proportio, Palazzo Fortuny, Venice (2015); Summer Exhibition 2014, Royal Academy, London (2014); Light Show, Hayward Gallery, London (2013), travelling to Auckland Art Gallery (2014–2015), MCA Sydney (2015), Sharjah Art Foundation (2015) and Benaki Museum, Athens (2016); the 55th Venice Biennale (2013); Journeys: Conrad Shawcross and Tavares Strachan, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (2011); and 4th edition international sculpture exhibition, LUSTWARANDE ’11 – RAW, Park De Oude Warande, Tilburg (2011).
