Ajar

Gavin Turk (b 1967) has had an active international career spanning over 25 years. He first came to public attention in 1991 with his degree show from The Royal College of Art. His work is a series of assisted readymades objects that seem commonplace but are détourned or transformed in often unexpected ways. A prominent figure of his generation of artists, he has pioneered many forms of contemporary British sculpture now taken for granted, including the painted bronze, the waxwork, the recycled art-historical reference and the use of rubbish in art. Turk’s installations and sculptures also deal with issues of authorship, authenticity and identity. Concerned with the ‘myth’ of the artist and the ‘authorship’ of a work - as well as the more contemporary crises of class, tribes and national identity - Turk’s engagement with this modernist, avant-garde debate stretches back to the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp. Turk’s work is held in important collections around the world and he has exhibited widely, with more than 50 solo shows alone as well as dozens of group museum shows in America, Asia, Australasia and Europe. The artist lives and works in London.