Kingston University, Goldsmiths, University of London
Conversation piece 3 anya gallaccio and rudi fuchs
Anya Gallaccio (born 1963) is a British artist, who creates site-specific, minimalist installations and often works with organic matter (including chocolate, sugar, flowers and ice).
Her use of organic materials results in natural processes of transformation and decay, meaning that Gallaccio is unable to predict the end result of her installations. Something which at the start of an exhibition may be pleasurable, such as the scent of flowers or chocolate, would inevitably become increasingly unpleasant over time. The timely and site-specific nature of her work make it notoriously difficult to document. Her work therefore challenges the traditional notion that an art object or sculpture should essentially be a monument within a museum or gallery. Instead her work often lives through the memory of those that saw and experienced it - or the concept of the artwork itself.
Anya gallaccio official trailer part of 14 18 now
Early life
Born in Paisley, Scotland to TV producer George Gallaccio and actress Maureen Morris. She grew up in south west London, England and studied at Kingston Polytechnic (1984–85) and Goldsmiths College (1985–88). In 1988 Gallaccio exhibited in the Damien Hirst-curated Freeze exhibition, and in 1990 the Henry Bond and Sarah Lucas organised East Country Yard shows, which brought together many of the Young British Artists. Gallaccio is a Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD).
Art practice
Much of her work uses organic materials, with fruit, vegetables and flowers all featuring in her work. Sometimes these materials undergo a change during the course their being exhibited. In Red on Green (1992), ten thousand rose heads placed on a bed of their stalks gradually withered as the exhibition went on. For Intensities and Surfaces (1996) Gallaccio left a thirty two ton block of ice with a salt core in the disused pump station at Wapping and allowed it to melt.
She sometimes re-creates works. Her most well-known work Red on Green was originally made for her first solo showing in a public gallery, at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London in 1992. It was then recreated ten years later for the exhibition Blast to Freeze: British Art in the 20th Century mounted by Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg in 2002 - 2003 and for the 2004 British Council exhibitionTurning Points: 20th Century British Sculpture.
In Stoke 2004, Gallaccio coated an old farm building at Edinburgh’s Jupiter Artland with almost 90 pounds of 70 percent cocoa, confectioner-quality chocolate. The work invited visitors to lick, touch, and stroke the walls.
preserve ‘beauty’ 1991 - 2003 was an artwork which Gallaccio produced as a nominee for the 2003 Turner Prize. The installation consisted of a wall of gerbera daisies pinned behind a single sheet of glass. Behind glass, recall still-life and romanticlandscape paintings, as well as flower arranging and pressing.
Other works by Gallaccio include Stroke (1993) in which benches in the gallery and cardboard panels attached to the walls were covered in chocolate, "Two Hundred Kilos of Apples Tied to a Barren Apple Tree", Atelier Amden, Amden, Switzerland (1999) and Because Nothing has Changed (2000), a bronze sculpture of a tree adorned with porcelain apples. Because I Could Not Stop (2002) is a similar bronze tree but with real apples which are left to rot.
At Houghton Hall in Norfolk, the Marquess of Cholmondeley commissioned a folly to the east of the great house. "The Sybil Hedge" is an "artlandish" folly. It is based on the signature of the marquis' grandmother, Sybil Sassoon. Gallaccio has created a sarcophagus-like marble structure which is sited at the end of a path; and nearby is a copper-beech hedge which is planted in lines mirroring Sybil's signature.
2005 saw the publication of Anya Gallaccio: Silver Seed by Ridinghouse, which accompanied the artist's exhibition commissioned by the Mount Stuart Trust for an installation at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute, Scotland, UK .
Awards and acknowledgements
In 2006, she was listed on the Pink Power list of 100 most influential gay and lesbian people of 2006.
In 2003, Gallaccio was shortlisted for the Turner Prize alongside Grayson Perry, Jake and Dinos Chapman and Willie Doherty. One of her pieces for the show was preserve "beauty", 1991–2003, which was made from glass, fixings and 2,000 red gerberas.
2015
Anya Gallaccio, Silas Marder Gallery, Bridgehampton, NY
Anya Gallaccio, MCA San Diego, California, USA
Anya Gallaccio, Lehmann Maupin, New York, USA
2014
Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, California
STROKE, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, UK
SNAP, Aldeburgh Festival, Snape Malting and Orford Ness, Suffolk, UK
2013
This Much is True, Hudson (Show)Room, Artpace, San Antonio, Texas
2012
The Light Pours Out of Me, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, UK
Arthur's Seat, Ingleby Gallery, Edinburgh, UK
2011
highway, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Where is Where it's at, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, UK
Surf's Up, La Jolla, San Diego, California
2009
Four Galleries, Four Exhibitions, One Venue, Anya Gallaccio, 4x4, The Bluecoat, Liverpool, UK
2008
Anya Gallaccio: that open space within, Camden Arts Centre, London, UK
Anya Gallaccio: Comfort and Conversation, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2007
Three Sheets To The Wind, Thomas Dane Gallery, London, UK
Sybil, Houghton Hall, King's Lynn, UK
2006
Anya Gallaccio, Galeria Leme, São Paulo, Brazil
One Art, Sculpture Center, New York
2005
Shadow on the Things You Know,Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, California
Silver Seed, Mount Stuart, Isle of Bute, UK
After the Gold Rush, collaboration with winemaker Zelma Long, initiated by New Langton Arts, San Francisco, California
The Look of Things, Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy
2004
Love is only a feeling, Lehmann Maupin Gallery, New York
Harvest of the winter months, Galerie im Künstlerhaus, Bremen, Germany
Anya Gallaccio, Ars Futura Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland
Intensities and Surfaces, Wapping Pumping Station, London, UK; commissioned by Women's Playhouse Trust
1995
Towards the Rainbow, Angel Row Gallery, Nottingham, UK
Anya Gallaccio, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK
Anya Gallaccio, Francesca Sorace, Florence, Italy
1994
Anya Gallaccio, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, California
Anya Gallaccio, Filiale, Basel, Switzerland
Anya Gallaccio, Karsten Schubert, London, UK
La Dolce Vita, Stephania Miscetti, Rome, Italy
1993
Anya Gallaccio, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria
Anya Gallaccio, Ars Futura Galerie, Zurich, Switzerland
Anya Gallaccio, Kim Light Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1992
Anya Gallaccio, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, UK
1991
Anya Gallaccio, Karsten Schubert, London, UK
2016
Terrain: Land Into Art, Hestercombe Gallery, Somerset UK
Nature Morte, Bohuslans Museum, Uddevalla, Sweden
2015
About Trees, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland
Beyond Limits. Sotheby's at Chatsworth: A Selling Exhibition, Chatsworth, Derbyshire, UK
Then For Now, Delfina Foundation, London, UK
Future Seasons Past, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
2014
inSite: Cuatro ensayos de lo público, sobre otro escenario (Four rehearsals on that which is public, on another scenario), Cuernavaca, Mexico
Phantoms in the Dirt, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, Illinois
2013
Creation / Destruction: Anya Gallaccio, Mark Lewis, Rut Blees Luxenburg, The Holden Gallery, Manchester, UK
Tipping Point, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, Wolverhampton, UK
Chasing Rainbows, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
The House of the Seven Gables, University Galleries, Illinois State University College of Fine Arts, Illinois
2012
Dissecting Nature, Quint Contemporary Art, La Jolla, California
Green Acres: Artists Farming Fields, Greenhouses and Abandoned Lots, Contemporary Art Center, Richard & Lois Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, Cincinnati, Ohio; American University Museum, Washington DC (2013) and Arlington Art Center, Arlington, Virginia (2013)
THIS THIS MONSTER THIS THINGS, Focal Point Gallery, Southend-on-Sea, UK
2010
On and On, La Casa Encendida, Madrid, Spain
Alpha &, On Stellar Rays, New York
Enel Contemporanea Award 2010,Macro Museum, Rome, Italy
Eating the Universe: Food in Art, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany; Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Stuttgart, Germany and Galerie im Taxispalais, Innsbruck, Austria
2009
Pot Luck: Food and Art, The New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK
15th Anniversary Inaugural Exhibition, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, California
Radical Nature, Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet, The Barbican Centre, London, UK; Dick Institute, Kilmarnock, UK, the Baird Institute, Cumnock, UK, and The Doon Valley Museum, Cathcartson, UK
Remote Proximity: Nature in Contemporary Art, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn, Germany
Flower Power,Villa Giulia, Centro Ricerca Arte Attuale, Verbania, Italy
2008
Living Flowers: Ikebana and Contemporary Art, Japanese American National Museum, Los Angeles, California
Nature Interrupted, Chelsea Art Museum, New York
Nina in Position, Artists Space, New York
Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, Barbican Centre, London, UK
2007
Apres la pluie, Musée départemental d'art contemporain de Rochechouart, Rochechouart, France
Sparkle then Fade, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, Washington
2006
Core, Illuminate Productions, Union Works, London, UK
If it didn't exist you'd have to invent it…a partial Showroom history, The Showroom, London, UK
Toutes Compositions Florales, Counter Gallery, London, UK
2005
Sad Songs, University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, Illinois
Monuments for the USA, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, California and White Columns Gallery, New York
2004
Flowers observed, flowers transformed, Andy Warhol Museum, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Von Pop bis Heute, Das Grosse Fressen, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
Lustwarande 04: Disorientation by Beauty, Tilburg, The Netherlands
Rose c'est la vie: On Flowers in Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
2003
Micro/Macro: British Art 1996-2002, Mucsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary
Purloined Nature, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Sakura, Japan
Look & Feel: Art Landscape Nature, De Verbeelding, Zeewolde, Netherlands
2002
Imagine, You Are Standing Here in Front of Me: Caldic Collection, Boijmans Van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Blast to Freeze: British Art in the 20th Century, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany
2001
EGOFUGAL: Fugue from Ego for the Next Emergence, 7th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts, Istanbul, Turkey
The Greenhouse Effect, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
The Invisible Touch, The Kunstraum Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
1999
Releasing Senses, Opera City Art Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Viereck und Kosmos: Amdenener Rundang,Amden, Switzerland
Do Paintings Dream of Veronese Green?, Elga Wimmer, New York, US
1998
Organic, Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France
Thinking Aloud, National Touring Exhibitions, Kettle's Yard, Cambridge, UK; Cornerhouse, Manchester, UK and Camden Arts Centre, London, UK
Real/Life: New British Art, Tochigi Prefectural Museum, Tochigi, Japan; Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka, Japan; Hiroshima City Museum, Hiroshima, Japan; Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan and Ashiya City Museum, Ashiya, Japan
1997
Der Verlorene Garten, Kunsthalle Palazzo, Liestral, Switzerland
Material Culture: The Object in British Art of the 1980s and '90s, Hayward Gallery, London, UK
Screen: 12 Artists from London, print portfolio published by Paragon Press, London, UK
Habitat Print Portfolio Prints, published by Habitat, UK
1996
The Pleasure of Aesthetic Life, The Showroom, London, UK
From Figure to Object: A Century of Sculptors' Drawings, Frith Street Gallery, London, UK, and Karsten Schubert, London, UK
Private View: Contemporary British and German Artists, A New Collection for John and Josephine Bowes, The Bowes Museum, Barnard Castle, UK
Time Wise, Swiss Institute, New York
Be Me, Giorgio Sadotti at Interim Art, London, UK
1995
The British Art Show 4, National Touring Exhibitions, Castlefield Gallery, Manchester, UK and Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh, UK
Brilliant! New Art from London, Walker Arts Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota and Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, Texas
On Beauty, Regina Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Where you were even now, Kunsthalle Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
Forest Floor, Chiltern Sculpture Trail, Oxford, UK
1994
Art Unlimited: Multiples of the 1960s and 1990s, National Touring Exhibitions, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, UK and Southbank Centre, London, UK
Le Shuttle, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
Sarah Staton Supastore Boutique, Laure Genillard Gallery, London, UK
InSITE 94, Aqua Caliente, Tijuana, Mexico and Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, California
Domestic Violence, Gio Marconi, Milan, Italy
Shiny Nylon: Anya Gallacio, Deborah Levy and Kristina Page, King George v Dock, London, UK; commissioned by Women's Playhouse Trust
1993
Sarah Staton Supastore, Poster Studio, London, UK
Le Jardin de la Vierge, Musée Instrumental, Brussels, Belgium
Home Alone, Karsten Schubert, London, UK
Le Principle de Réalité, Villa Arson, Nice, France
Into the Blue, Bournemouth Festival, Bournemouth, UK
A Dance Collaboration with Rosemary Butcher, Third Eye Centre, Glasgow, UK
1992
With Attitude, Galerie Rodolphe Janssen, Brussels, Belgium
20 Fragile Pieces, Galerie Barbara et Luigi Polla, Geneva, Switzerland
A Group Show, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York and Stein Gladstone Gallery, New York
Life Size, small medium large, Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato, Italy
15/1, Malania Basarab Gallery, London, UK
1991
Confrontaciones, Palacio de Velázquez, Madrid, Spain
Rachel Evans, Anya Gallaccio, Bridget Smith, The Clove Building, London, UK
Broken English, Serpentine Gallery, London, UK
Museum of Installation Site Three, Surrey Docks, London, UK
The Times: London's Young Artists, Art '91, Olympia, London, UK
The Archive Project, Centre d'art Contemporain, Nevers, France
1990
Next Phase, Wapping Pumping Station, London, UK
East Country Yard Show, Surrey Docks, London, UK
1989
The Drum Show, Broadgate Arena, London, UK
New Year New Talent, Anderson O'Day, London, UK
The Return of Ulysses, floor for the set of English National Opera, Coliseum, London UK