Turner Contemporary, Margate, UK has been shortlisted for the Freelands Award 2022 for an exhibition with artist Anya Gallaccio, to be held in the winter of 2024. It will include critical sculptures and installations from her 35-year career, many remade for the first time, alongside a significant new commission responding to the geology of Kent and environmental issues.
Anya Gallaccio (b. 1963, Paisley, Scotland) lives and works in San Diego, CA. Her work addresses our complex relationship with the natural world through site-specific and transient works that challenge the permanency of the art object. She often works in organic materials, such as cut flowers, ice, chocolate, grass, basalt, and fruit, which grow and decay, transforming the work in the process. In recent years she has combined these with more traditional sculptural materials.
Gallacio graduated from Goldsmiths in 1988. In the same year she exhibited in Damien Hirst’s Freeze, that brought together a generation of Young British Artists for the first time. She has presented solo exhibitions including Lindisfarne Castle, Holy Island, Northumberland, UK (2018); Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA (2015); Artpace, San Antonio, TX (2013); Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh, Scotland (2012); Camden Arts Center, London, UK (2008); Sculpture Center, Queens, NY (2006); Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy (2005); Tate London, UK (2003); Tate Britain, London, UK (2002); Serpentine Gallery Lawn, London, UK (1997); and the ICA London, UK (1992). In 2003 she was nominated for the Turner Prize of the Tate Britain, London, UK. She is a professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of California, San Diego, CA.
Clarrie Wallis, Director of Turner Contemporary, says: “We are delighted to be one of five organizations from across the UK to have been shortlisted for the prestigious 2022 Freelands Award, which celebrates the achievements of often-overlooked women artists. Turner Contemporary is working with artist Anya Gallaccio on her most ambitious solo exhibition to date. All her projects are specific to place and time. Kent is traditionally known as ‘The Garden of England’ because of the abundance of orchards and hop gardens. Anya’s exhibition and accompanying engagement program will directly explore Kent’s countryside, heritage, and history. Anya's interest in working with organic materials—such as ice, chalk, salt, flowers, or fruit—which change, disintegrate, grow, or decay addresses our complex relationship with the natural world. Due to the temporal nature of her work, much of it is unknown. With this timely exhibition, we are eager to introduce her practice to a new generation concerned about complex eco-systems and the need for climate justice."