MARTIN BOYCE - 2009

MARTIN BOYCE (1967-)

Martin Boyce represents Scotland at the 2009 Venice Biennale.

This catalogue accompanies Martin Boyce's exhibitions at Westfaelischer Kunstverein, Frac des Pays de la Loire and Ikon Gallery in 2008.

Martin Boyce is interested in urban landscape, transforming galleries with groups of works which poetically recall conventional public areas; for example, the playground or the pedestrian subway.

The artist is one of the most original of the Scottish artists who came to international prominence during the 1990s. He works at the interface of design, architecture, and the social environment.

For this major exhibition, the artist creates ‘a place out of time’. Individual works comprising sculptural forms are reminiscent nostalgically of the phone booth, the streetlamp and the recliner. Ikon Gallery presented a series of new works made especially for their gallery spaces alongside recent pieces never before seen in the UK.

Estranged from their original place and purpose, Boyce’s subjects draw on the visual language and fabrication of iconic Modernist designs to form an eerie dreamlike landscape. We are encouraged to consider alternative lives for them, away from their natural habitats.

This is a joint publication between Ikon Gallery, Frac des Pays de la Loire, Westfälischer Kunstverein and produced by JRP|Ringier.