Gagosian Hong Kong will present recent paintings by acclaimed British conceptual artist Michael Craig-Martin. Known for his “pictorial readymades”, Craig-Martin explores the perceptual tension between object, representation, and language, and the human capacity to imagine ideas and forms through symbols and images. His drawings, paintings, and sculptures are representations in the truest sense of the word, portraying familiar objects as iconic archetypes. The viewer is thus invited to associate these objects with their own personal forms.
Subjects are conveyed in their most concise and unelaborated forms, yet Craig-Martin unleashes them with absolute chromatic freedom. Objects are rendered in neon pink, bright turquoise, lime green and other vivid colour, colours that are completely untrue to these forms, subverting the very meaning of the image being presented. “The drawings are as precisely like the thing as I can make them, and the colour is as artificial as I can make it,” Craig-Martin has said. His images challenge the relationship between objects and images, and the nature of representation and perception.
Michael Craig-Martin
Untitled (high heel), 2013
Acrylic on aluminum
Michael Craig-Martin
Untitled (violin), 2014
Acrylic on aluminium
Michael Craig-Martin
Untitled (headphones), 2014
Acrylic on aluminum
by Louise Lui
All images © Michael Craig-Martin. Courtesy Gagosian Gallery, Photo Mike Bruce
Michael Craig-Martin is at Gagosian Hong Kong from June 12 until August 16, 2014