Thames River Water

Ivorypress in Madrid presents an exhibition on British artist Marc Quinn, showcasing works that explore the human relationship with nature, with sculptural books and paintings.

Marc Quinn, “Thames River Water” exhibition at Ivorypress, Madrid 2017
Ivorypress presents “Thames River Water”, an exhibition with a series of ‘sculptural’ books and paintings by British artist Marc Quinn, on his exploration of the human relationship with nature. Unfurled as a freestanding screen, each book stands approximately four meters long; equally, when contracted, it can be viewed as a concertinaed book. 
Marc Quinn, Held by desire (Tundra fossil fuel), 2014
Marc Quinn, Held by desire (Tundra fossil fuel), 2014. Courtesy Ivorypress
Each of the four books is unique and originates from the artist’s recent bodies of work The Toxic Sublime and River Paintings. Also paintings from both series are on show, together with two sculptures from the Frozen Wave series. The Toxic Sublime works respond to the ecological impact of humans on nature and question the notion of “the sublime” in landscape. To make his pieces, an oversized canvas photograph of a sunrise is first sanded and taped by Quinn, then spray-painted through templates the artist makes using flotsam and jetsam that he gathers from beaches. The completed works exhibit the formal elements of classical landscape painting but are also suggestive of something wrecked, as though a pictorial remnant discarded from some kind of physical disaster.
Marc Quinn, Thames River Water Atlas, artist book,  2017
Marc Quinn, Thames River Water Atlas, artist book, 2017
In River Paintings the artist looks explicitly at humankind’s control of nature. Quinn sees a river as something primordial running through the heart of the modern city; it is the city’s life-blood and its circulation, which brought and sustained the first visitors and continues to sustain us today. The River Paintings consist of photographs of rivers running through cities, which are printed onto canvas and then overpainted completely in black acrylic. Shown side-by-side, the sculptures and canvasses that make up “Thames River Water” speak of the natural environment, the human-made world and their powerful coexistence.
Marc Quinn, <i>Frozen Wave (The Conservation of Energy)</i>, 2015
Marc Quinn, Frozen Wave (The Conservation of Energy), 2015

22 February – 13 May 2017
Marc Quinn. Thames River Water
Ivorypress
calle del Comandante Zorita, 48
Madrid

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