David Batchelor show in London

Associated media

8 August – 30 September 2011

Monday – Friday 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Now on at the Karsten Schubert gallery, London,  ‘2D3D’, the first exhibition of paintings by David Batchelor. The works, which grew out of a series of drawings, continue Batchelor’s exploration of colour, and reflect on the traditional roles of painting and sculpture.   

Each brightly coloured and monochromatic work features an irregular oval form produced by pouring gloss paint onto aluminium composite board. Differences in shape, texture and size are achieved through the volume of paint applied, the angle of the board and the time left for the paint to dry. The resulting surface can be relatively smooth and flat or marked with wrinkles or irregular wave-like patterns. After the forms takes shape and the paint dries – a process that can take up to six months – Batchelor adds a schematic matt black ‘plinth’ to the base of each glossy ovoid. 

 Much of Batchelor’s work of the last two decades has occupied a space between painting and sculpture: while three-dimensional in form, they often refer to the history and condition of painting. These works continue to play with dimensionality: they are literally and optically flat but they allude to mass, weight, volume and mass. Each painting is a picture of a monochromatic and entirely fictional sculpture.   

Since 1990, Batchelor’s work has typically focused on the use of intense artificial colours and their application within the urban environment. Batchelor’s sculptures, often consisting of found objects or cheap plastic goods, are startling in that they isolate and transform materials which are otherwise ubiquitous and therefore, relatively invisible in the daily life of the city.   

David Batchelor (b.1955, Dundee, Scotland) received his BA (Hons) at the Fine Trent Polytechnic, Nottingham and MA from the Cultural Studies Centre of Contemporary Cultural Studies, University of Birmingham. Solo exhibitions include Chromophilia (Paco Imperial, Rio de Janeiro, 2010) and Big Rock Candy Fountain (2010), a light installation erected above Archway tube station. Notable group exhibitions include Colour Chart: Reinventing Colour, 1950 to Today (MoMA, New York, 2008, Tate Liverpool, 2009) and Days Like These: Tate Triennial of Contemporary Art (Tate Britain, 2003). Selected publications include Found Monochromes: Vol.1, 1-250, (Ridinghouse 2010), Unplugged (Talbot Rice Gallery, 2007) and Chromophobia (Reaktion Books, 2000).  

 For more information on the exhibition contact: [email protected]

Karsten Schubert Gallery, 5–8 Lower John Street, London W1F 9DR