Art Metropole

Wim Delvoye was born in 1965 in Wervik, Belgium. Working in such varied mediums as sculpture, drawing, live tattooed animals, stained-glass windows, and X-ray photographs, Delvoye mischievously brings together the extremes of high-brow and low-brow culture. In the late 80s, Delvoye applied Dutch ornamental traditions (i.e. Delft china patterns and coats of arms) to mundane objects like shovels, gas cylinders, and ironing boards. In works like Cement Truck (1990–91) and Delft Concrete Mixer (1992), lavish flourishes adorned larger objects. In his series Mosaics (1990–92), realistic renderings of excrement were used to decorate white ceramic tiles. In 1992, Delvoye began an extensive project in which he exhibited live pigs and dried skins of pigs, both covered in tattoos drawn from the domain of bikers and punk rockers: skulls, daggers, snakes, hearts, and Harley Davidson logos. In 2004, he extended this medium by exhibiting stuffed pigs and by expanding his tattoo vernacular to include Louis Vuitton patterns and images of Disney princesses.

Concurrent to his projects involving tattooed pigs and the eventual establishment of their permanent home at “Art Farm” in Beijing, Delvoye developed several other major projects. From 1998–99, the artist photographed patterns of various sliced meats meticulously assembled to approximate cold, clean marble floors. In his ongoing series of Gothic works, initiated in 1999, Delvoye created stained-glass windows and sculptural works. For the latter, he constructed, in the elaborate International Gothic style, massive equipment typically found on construction sites (a Caterpillar machine, dump truck, flatbed trailer, and cement truck). In 2009, Delvoye built Torre, a Cor-ten-steel tower, with ogival-arched windows, tracery, and turrets, on the terrace of Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, overlooking the Grand Canal, for the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. The artist’s ongoing project, Cloaca, involves several versions of an original machine completed in 2000, which replicated the digestive system, consuming matter at one end and producing excrement at the other.

Solo exhibitions of Delvoye’s work have been organized by Castello di Rivoli (1991), Kunsthalle Nürnberg (1992), Open Air Museum Middelheim in Antwerp (1997), Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (2000), Migros Museum in Zurich (2001), Museum Kunst-Palast in Dusseldorf (2002), The Power Plant in Toronto (2004), and Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice (2009). His work has also been included in major group exhibitions such as Venice Biennale (1990, 1999, and 2009), Documenta IX (1992), Sydney Biennale (1992), Lyon Biennial (2000 and 2005), and Shanghai Biennale (2006). Delvoye lives and works in Ghent.

Canadian artist Kim Adams is known for his assemblage type sculptures that incorporate the readymade and prefabricated to explore social structures, the implications of technology and mobility, and the divide between life and art. Adams has exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally, and his works have been shown both in sanctioned gallery spaces, as well as out amongst the public. His challenging aesthetic and sense of humor emerge throughout his diverse practice.

Kim Adams has been showing for almost three decades and is currently based in Toronto. Recent solo shows include Artist Colony (Bureau de change, 75th Anniversary of the Banff Centre) at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, Roadside Attractions at Galerie Stadtpark, Krems, Austria, and Bugs and Dragons at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Recent group shows include Beyond/In Western New York 2010 in Buffalo, NY, Insiders at the Musee d’art contemporain in Bordeaux, France, and El Geni de Les Coses at the Office for Artistic Diffusion (ODA) in Barcelona. He is the subject of numerous books and catalogues, and his work is part of many major public collections such as the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, and the Centraal Museum in Holland

Liam Gillick is an artist based in New York. Solo exhibitions include The Wood Way, Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2002; A short text on the possibility of creating an economy of equivalence, Palais de Tokyo, 2005 and the retrospective project Three Perspectives and a short scenario, Witte de With, Rotterdam, Kunsthalle Zurich, Kunstverein, München and the MCA, Chicago, 2008-2010. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2002 and the Vincent Award at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 2008. Many public commissions and projects include the Home Office in London (2005) and the Dynamica Building in Guadalajara, Mexico (2009). In 2006 he was a central figure in the free art school project unitednationsplaza in Berlin that travelled to Mexico City and New York. Liam Gillick has published a number of texts that function in parallel to his artwork. Proxemics (Selected writing 1988-2006) JRP-Ringier was published in 2007 alongside the monograph Factories in the Snow by Lilian Haberer, JRP-Ringier. A critical reader titled Meaning Liam Gillick, was published by MIT Press (2009). An anthology of his artistic writing titled Allbooks was also published by Book Works, London (2009). In addition he has contributed to many art magazines and journals including Parkett, Frieze, Art Monthly, October and Art Forum. Liam Gillick was selected to represent Germany for the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009. The resulting work is in the permanent collection of the Guggenheim Bilbao. A major exhibition opened at the Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland in April 2010. In 2012 a survey of work from the 1990s titled Liam Gillick: From 199A to 199B opened at the CCS Bard Hessel Museum. Liam Gillick has taught at Columbia University in New York since 1997 and the Centre for Curatorial Studies at Bard College since 2008. Public collections include: Government Art Collection, UK; Arts Council, UK; Tate, London; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago.

Lee Bul was born in 1964 in Seoul, Korea where she lives and works. Lee Bul was initially academically trained in sculpture but her interest quickly diversified into other techniques including performance art. She incorporated her own body, contradicting general perceptions of idealized human appearance, sexuality, gender, and rebuking the repression of women within a patriarchal society. Her installation entitled Majestic Splendor (1997) at the Museum of Modern Art; rotting fish encrusted in sequins, a commentary on the ephemeral nature of beauty and the powerlessness of women, caused a furore and affirmed her global reputation as an intrepid emerging artist. Much of her attraction lies in her ability to bring together diverse themes, at once traditional, contemporary, provocative and timeless.

Marcel Dzama‘s work is characterized by an immediately recognizable visual language that draws from a diverse range of references and artistic influences, including Dada and Marcel Duchamp. While he has become known for his prolific drawings with their distinctive palette of muted colors, in recent years, the artist has expanded his practice to encompass sculpture, painting, film, and dioramas.

Dzama was born in 1974 in Winnipeg, Canada, where he received his B.F.A. from the University of Manitoba. Since 1998, his work has been represented by David Zwirner, where he has had six solo exhibitions with the gallery in New York. Puppets, Pawns, and Prophets marked his first solo show at David Zwirner, London, which was on view from April 6 to May 11, 2013. The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue published by David Zwirner and Hatje Cantz, with an essay by Deborah Solomon.

In fall 2013, a comprehensive monograph of Dzama’s work, produced and designed in collaboration with the artist, will be published by Abrams and will feature contributions by Bradley Bailey, Dave Eggers, Spike Jonze, and Raymond Pettibon.

Dzama has exhibited widely in the United States and internationally. In 2010, a major survey of the artist’s work was presented at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in Montreal, Canada. Other recent solo exhibitions include those organized by the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Málaga, Spain; Museo de Arte de Zapopan (MAZ), Zapopan, Mexico; World Chess Hall of Fame and Museum, St. Louis, Missouri (all 2012); Gemeentemuseum, The Hague; Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (both 2011); Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich (2008); Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England (2006); and Le Magasin – Centre National d’Art Contemporain de Grenoble, France (2005).

Work by the artist is held in museum collections worldwide, including the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Canada; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Gallery, London; and the Vancouver Art Gallery. He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Founded in 1987, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery is Canada’s leading public art gallery devoted to the presentation of contemporary art, artists and ideas through exhibitions, publications, talks, and events. Initially established in 1976 as the Art Gallery at Harbourfront, the gallery moved to a repurposed 1920’s powerhouse located on Toronto’s waterfront in the late 1980s. The Power Plant is recognizable by its smokestack and exterior facade which have been restored to maintain reference to its history.

Since its earliest programming, The Power Plant has been dedicated to presenting new and recent work by Canadian artists along with their international peers. Over its history, the program has included ambitious thematic exhibitions and major solo exhibitions by Canadians Colin Campbell, Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Peter Doig, Stan Douglas, Geoffrey Farmer, Rodney Graham, Annie Pootoogook, Steven Shearer, and Michael Snow. Solo exhibitions by international artists include those by Fiona Banner, Liam Gillick, Douglas Gordon, Thomas Hirschhorn, Mike Kelley, Glenn Ligon, Adrian Piper, Ryan Trecartin, Francesco Vezzoli, and Carey Young. In 2006 The Power Plant inaugurated an annual commissioning program which includes the presentation of new works by Candice Breitz, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, Scott Lyall, Simon Starling, Ian Wallace, Lawrence Weiner, and Pae White. Over the last twenty-five years, The Power Plant has produced over forty influential and award-winning publications, as well as a wide array of public programming such as symposia, performances, screenings, and the acclaimed International Lecture Series that further the dialogue around contemporary practices.