Thursday, February 13, 2014

Marcus Coates and Laura Lancaster: "Private Utopia - Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection" Tokyo Station Gallery, Tokyo

Marcus Coates Convolvulus Hawk Moth, Agrius convolvuli (larva) Self Portrait, shaving foam, 2013, Archival Giclée Print mounted on Aluminium, 172.7 x 121.9 cm, 68 x 48 in, edition of 5 plus 1 artist's proof (#1/5 - British Council Collection), Courtesy of the artist and Workplace Gallery

 

Private Utopia

Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection


Tokyo Station Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

18 Jan - 9 March 2014

 

Anna Barriball
Jake and Dinos Chapman
Adam Chodzko
Marcus Coates
Martin Creed
Jeremy Deller
Peter Doig
Tracey Emin
Ryan Gander
Ed Hall
Roger Hiorns
Gary Hume
Jim Lambie
Laura Lancaster
Sarah Lucas
Haroon Mirza
Mike Nelson
Paul Noble
Cornelia Parker
Grayson Perry
Elizabeth Price 

George Shaw
David Shrigley
Simon Starling
Wood & Harrison
Cerith Wyn Evans
Toby Ziegler

 

Private Utopia: Contemporary Art from the British Council Collection is a major new exhibition which has been created in partnership with the Asahi Shimbun; Tokyo Station Gallery; Itami City Museum of Art; Kochi Museum of Art and Okayama Museum of Art. Together, the curators of each museum have selected works from the holdings of the British Council Collection.

Private Utopia spans the last two decades and showcases the range of work produced by British artists during this time. What is particularly striking about the selection is the array of themes, ideas and materials. Crossovers into music, literature, social history and anthropology are common threads running through the exhibition, reflecting the multifarious nature of contemporary art in the UK today and the broadening definition of what art can be.

The curators from each of the Japanese museums have jointly selected works by artists who came to prominence in the mid 1990's - Jake and Dinos Chapman, Peter Doig, Gary Hume, Sarah Lucas and Cornelia Parker - alongside younger artists who have emerged in the last decade, such as Haroon Mirza, Martin Boyce and Roger Hiorns. Of the 28 artists included in the exhibition, 17 have been nominated for the Turner Prize, which is a testament to the quality of artists in the British Council Collection.

New purchases have been made especially for the exhibition and we are delighted to showcase works by Marcus Coates, Sarah Lucas and Ryan Gander for the first time internationally. Additional works have been lent with great generosity for this exhibition: So Many Ways to Hurt You (The Life and Times of Adrian Street) (2010) by Jeremy Deller; I'm Dead (2010) by David Shrigley; The Woolworths Choir of 1979 (2012) by Elizabeth Price; and three recent Untitled paintings (2010) by Laura Lancaster.

For further information, please visit the exhibition website:

English: http://www.britishcouncil.jp/en/private-utopia

Japanese: http://www.britishcouncil.jp/private-utopia