From 5 October 2024, Kunsthal Rotterdam will be presenting the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of the British artist Thomas J Price (1981, London). With his work spanning various media, including sculpture, performance, photography, and animation, the artist consistently bends the conventions of materials, scale, and presentation. Price focuses on central themes of representation and how we associate and perceive power within society. In this extensive retrospective, the Kunsthal will be showing a wide variety of works from Price’s two-decade-spanning career, from the early performance Licked (2001) up to recent sculptures such as A Place Beyond (2022).
Price’s monumental figurative sculptures encompass a number of key questions: Who is given recognition in society? Who is given the opportunity to be seen? Who is represented? In his work the artist draws attention to the psychological embodiment of everyday, fictional characters. He confronts our preconceived attitudes towards representation and identity, harnessing the social characteristics and cues we base these on. His impressive sculptures are developed through a hybrid approach of digital technology and traditional sculptural techniques.
The performance ‘Licked’ shows Price licking the interior walls of a gallery for a period of three days. The artist conceived the work as an expression of presence in absence, of being in a space without being seen. Although this is Price’s only performance piece to date, it continues to have a significant impact on his multidisciplinary work and way of thinking. The exhibition covers all disciplines the artist works in, including photography, painting, and animation.
Thomas J Price
Thomas J Price is one of the most important contemporary British artists of his generation. He studied at the Chelsea College of Art and the Royal College of Art in London. In 2023, the solo presentation ‘Beyond Measure’ was shown at Hauser & Wirth in Los Angeles. Until May 2024, the exhibition Thomas Price at the V&A can be seen at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Since November 2023, Price is participating in the National Gallery of Victoria Triennial in Melbourne, Australia. Last summer, his almost four-metre-high sculpture Moments Contained — a gift from the Droom en Daad foundation to the city — was unveiled in the square in front of Rotterdam Central Station.
Thomas J Price. Matter of Place is part of a European tour in collaboration with Kunsthalle Krems (27 April up to and including 22 September 2024) and Arnolfini, Bristol (8 March up to and including 1 June 2025), and is realised in collaboration with the artist and Hauser & Wirth.
