Gavin Turk: Give In

An exhibition of Gavin Turk’s highly influential works to coincide with the artist’s major survey show, Who What When Where How & Why at Damien Hirst’s award-winning Newport Street Gallery. Give In transforms the gallery into a Museum of Curiosities, with pseudo-archaeological objects in cabinets punctuating the space, an installation cum magician’s trick, and brand new tromp l’oeil sculptures.

Over the last three decades, Turk has relentlessly challenged the notions of value, authorship and identity in his work, audaciously intermingling references both to modern masters and to himself, in the pieces he creates. Give In plays with the modernist framework; the works presented allude to the nuances of language, philosophy and to the Age of Reason and beyond. Paternal art historical references are layered like geological strata: Josef Albers, Joseph Beuys, Christo, Marcel Duchamp, Damien Hirst, Donald Judd and Joseph Kosuth, are familiar forbearers who resonate in his work.