David Thorpe
EXHIBITED AT THE SAATCHI GALLERY
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Click on the images to enlarge
David Thorpe
Kings of The Night
1998
Paper Collage
149 x 168cm |
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David Thorpe’s work is concerned with the relationship between objects and their makers, with a particular interest in the role of craft and labour in handmade design and art. “I'm playing with certain associations,” he has said, “slightly New Age, slightly Space Age, slightly threatening…I'm absolutely in love with people who build up their own systems of belief.” This idea is reflected in works that variously reference modernist principles of object-making, utopian social architecture, Japanese woodblock prints, and Victorian paper-cutting. |
David Thorpe
Endeavours
2010
Wood, ceramic tiles, steel
309.2 x 262.3 x 120 cm |
 
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In the past Thorpe has made elaborate collaged paintings, but his more recent work explores the actualisation of pattern through unusual three-dimensional renderings that highlight the tension between exquisite decorativeness and the aura of DIY home-craft manuals. |
David Thorpe
Private Lives
2010
Plaster, leather, light system, wood stand
107.3 x 106 x 106 cm, Wood stand: 70.5 x 93.3 x 93.3 cm |
 
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The works shown here all make reference to an interconnectedness between ideology and lifestyle. I Am Golden (2003) is a miniature temple-like structure that also doubles as a plant stand. Endeavours and Private Lives (both 2010) allude to the aesthetics and theories of the Arts and Crafts Movement of the late 19th century and the democratising art ideals of William Morris and John Ruskin. Thorpe’s large pattern-covered objects have been executed with the collaborative assistance of skilled artisans trained in recreating labour-intensive medieval recipes for making paint and ceramic moulds. |
David Thorpe
We Never Sleep
1998
Paper Collage
90 x 176cm |
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The mesmerising repeated motifs of Endeavours are inspired by William Morris’s elaborate title page for John Ruskin’s famous essay ‘Nature of Gothic’, which defines the artist as ‘a Naturalist’ who seeks true beauty by illustrating nature and the human being ‘in its wholeness’. |
David Thorpe
Covenant of the Elect
2002
Mixed Media Collag
63 x 111 cm |
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Labour in and of itself stands as the central, distilled idea behind Thorpe’s object, whose functionality is deliberately unclear. Private Lives, a plaster form resting on wooden legs, is similarly adorned with stylised leaves and vines made of carefully cut leather. Emanating from it is a light that imbues the sculpture with an almost devotional symbolic charge of self-sufficiency. |
David Thorpe
Do What You Have To Do
1998
Paper Cut-Out
142 x 170cm |
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David Thorpe
Forever
1998
Paper Collage
36 x 145cm |
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David Thorpe
The Quiet Voice
2004
Mixed Media Collage
42 x 52cm |
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David Thorpe
Fragile Resistance
2004
Plaster and Leather
59 x 15cm |
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David Thorpe
I Am Golden
2002
Mixed Media Installation
Dimensions Variable |
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David Thorpe's BIOGRAPHY
1972
Born in London, lives and works in Berlin, Germany
1991-1994
Humberside University, BA (Hons) Fine Art
1996-1998
Goldsmiths University, MA Fine Art
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2010
Casey Kaplan, New York, NY
Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe, Germany
2009
“A Weak Light Flickering”, Meyer Riegger, Berlin, Germany.
“David Thorpe Veils and Shelters”, Kunstverein Hannover, Hannover,
Germany
2008
Museum Kurhaus Kleve, Germany
2007
Meyer Riegger, Karlsruhe, Germany
“The Defeated Life Restored,” Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus, Switzerland;
Camden Arts Centre, London, United Kingdom; Kurhaus Kleve, Kleve,
Germany
2006
“A Meeting of Friends,” Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA
2005
Maureen Paley, London
303 Gallery, New York
2004
The Colonists, Meyer Riegger Galerie, Karlsruhe, Germany
The Colonist, Art Now space, Tate Britain, London
2003
Taro Nasu Gallery, Tokyo
2002
Maureen Paley Interim Art, London
1999
Maureen Paley Interim Art, London
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2011
The Shape Of Things To Come: New Sculpture, The Saatchi Gallery, London
2009
The Dark Monarch: Magic and Modernity in British Art, Tate St. Ives, United Kingdom
Delusional Virtuosity, Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Schiedam,The Netherlands
2008
Haus und Himmel, Museum Kurhaus, Kleve, Germany
2007
Three for Society, 303 Gallery, New York, NY
2006
China Art Objects Galleries, Los Angeles, CA
Sleep of Urlo, curated by Goshka Macuga, A Foundation, Liverpool,
United Kingdom
Toutes Compositions Florales,” Counter Gallery, London, United Kindgom
2005
Blake & Sons – Alternative Lifestyles and Mysticism in Contemporary Art,The Lewis Gluksman Gallery, University College, Cork, United Kingdom
Ideal Worlds: New Romanticism in Contemporary Art,
Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
British Art Show 6, various locations
2004
Not Afraid, Rubell Family Collection, Wynwood Art District, Miami, FL
Into My World, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
Edge of the Real - A Painting Show, Whitechapel Art Gallery,
London
2003
Bootleg, Spitalfields Market, London
2002
We all love … The Mission, London
Drawing Now: Eight Propositions, MoMa QNS, New York
Per Saldo, Noordbrabants Museum, 's-Hertogenbosch, The
Netherlands
Tailsliding, Bergen Centre for Contemporary Art, Norway,
Vilnius Centre of Contemporary Art, Lithuania, Rotermann
Salt Storage, Art Museum of Estonia, Tallinn, Estonia, CASA,
Salamanca, Spain, Turku Art Museum, Finland, Brno House of Arts,
Czech Republic
The Necessary Enemy, Bart Wells Institute, London Beyond
Barbizon, Elias Fine Art, Allston, MA
Painted, Printed and Produced in Great Britain,
Grant Selwyn Fine Art, New York
2001
Futureland 2001, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
Sages, Scientists and Madmen, One in the Other, London Extended
Painting, Monica de Cardenas, Milan
2000
Future Perfect: art on how architecture imagined the future,
Cornerhouse, Manchester
Salon, Delfina Project Space, London
Twisted. Urban and Visionary Landscapes in Contemporary Painting,
Van AbbeMuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Future Perfect: art on how architecture imagined the future,
Centre for Visual Arts, Cardiff
The Wreck of Hope, The Nunnery Gallery, London
Wooden Heart, AVCO, London
1999
Idlewild, The approach, London
Heart & Soul, 60 Long Lane, London
The Sea, The Sea, Murray Guy, New York
1998
Die Young Stay Pretty, ICA, London
Cluster Bomb, Morrison Judd Gallery, London
Ruislip, De Pracktijk, Amsterdam
Post Neo-Amatuerism, Chisenhale Gallery, London
Futures for the Young, Axel Morner Gallery, Stockholm
Printemps, Deutsch Britische Freundschaft
Sunshine Breakfast, Michael Janssen Gallery, Cologne
Sociable Realism, Stephen Friedman Gallery, London
1997
David Thorpe and Simon Periton, Habitat, Kings
Road, London
Need for Speed, Grazer Kunstverein Steirischer herbst 97,
Graz, Austria
B.o.n.go, Bricks and Kicks Gallery, Vienna
David Thorpe and Simon Hollington, City Racing, London
1996
Angels, Standpoint Gallery, London
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