Download “John Gerrard: Power.Play” press release.
About the Exhibition
“John Gerrard: Power.Play” is curated by UCCA Director Philip Tinari with assistant curator Guo Xi. The video equipment sponsor for the exhibition is Christie Digital System (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. The exhibition is supported by the Embassy of Ireland in China. Audio guide is supported by VART. The exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual publication that includes essays by Robin Mackay and Manuel Shvartzberg as well as a dialogue between Gerrard and Robin Peckham.
On the occasion of the exhibition, UCCA and John Gerrard have organized “Image.Object”, a series of master-class workshops focused on developing skills in 3D imaging to take place at four of China’s leading art schools: China Central Academy of Arts (Beijing), China Academy of Art (Hangzhou), Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts (Shenyang). Students are coached through processes inherent to John Gerrard’s works from conception to execution of an original artwork: producing 3D scans, importing the scans into game engines, and setting the diagnostics for a new simulated environment. Concepts and finished works will be assessed by John Gerrard and critiqued in the workshop setting. Each workshop concludes with an informal exhibition of completed student works.
About the Artist
John Gerrard (b. 1974, Dublin) now lives and works in Dublin, Ireland, and Vienna, Austria. Recent solo exhibitions of Gerrard’s work include “Solar Reserve” (Lincoln Centre in association with the Public Art Fund, NYC, 2014); “Dialogue (John Gerrard / David Claerbout)” (MuHKA, Antwerp, 2014); “Exercise” (Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul, 2014); “Pulp Press” (Kistefos) (Kistefos Museet, Norway, 2013), “Exercise (Djibouti)” (Modern Art Oxford, 2012); and “Infinite Freedom Exercise” Manchester International Festival (2011). Gerrard’s work is in private and institutional collections internationally, including Tate, London; Pinakotek der Moderne, Munich; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington; and SFMoMA, San Francisco.