Angela de la Cruz Exhibition To Inaugurate Newly Renovated Peer Gallery

An exhibition by Angela de la Cruz, together with two new public art commissions on Hoxton Street, in the heart of East London, will be the inaugural show at the newly renovated PEER gallery.  

Angela de la Cruz’s presentation will feature her massive 10 x 12 metre painting Larger than Life, originally made for the Ballroom of the Royal Festival Hall in 1998. The PEER version was remade in 2004 and has toured widely abroad before being repatriated and squeezed into PEER’s more modest 5 x 7 metre gallery space. De la Cruz is widely acclaimed for her poignant and sometimes tragicomic works, situated somewhere between painting and sculpture. Her works test and challenge the objectness and authority of painting’s status by tearing, crushing and breaking canvases and stretchers. PEER will also exhibit new work specially commissioned for this presentation.

Angela de la Cruz was born in La Coruña in Galicia, northwest Spain in 1965 and lives and works in London. She studied philosophy at the University of Santiago de Compostela (1987) before moving to London, where she obtained a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths College (1994) and an MA in Sculpture and Critical Theory from the Slade (1996). Solo exhibitions include Fundación Luis Seoane (2015), Camden Arts Centre, London (2010), Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo, Sevilla, Spain (2005) and Museo de Arte Contemporanea de Vigo, Annex Space MARCO, Spain (2004). She was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2010. She is represented in London by Lission Gallery. 

Two new public art commissions will also inaugurate the recently re-landscaped public space to the front of PEER. A four-metre high pedestal clock will be installed on Hoxton Street, with a four-sided clock face and rotating lightbox for changing displays beneath. The first annual clock commission will be by Chris Ofili, who has longstanding connections to the area. Interdisciplinary art practice London Fieldworks (Bruce Gilchrist and Jo Joleson) have designed a large-scale permanent installation made up of over 200 bird and insect boxes modelled on the social housing in the area. This extraordinary sculpture, Spontaneous City: Hoxton, will encourage local wildlife and increase biodiversity in Hackney. An editioned print and bird boxes are available for sale to raise funds for PEER.

Chris Ofili was born in Manchester, England, in 1968, and currently lives and works in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He received his BA in Fine Art from Chelsea School of Art (1991) and his MA in Fine Art from the Royal College of Art (1993). Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented internationally, including the New Museum, New York (2014), travelling to Aspen Art Museum (2015); The Arts Club of Chicago (2010); Tate Britain, London (2010 and 2005); kestnergesellschaft, Hannover (2006), and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2005). He represented Britain in the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 and won the Turner Prize in 1998. His works are held in the permanent collections of a number of museums, including the British Museum, London; the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; MoMA, New York; Tate, London; the V&A London; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis. 

Seventeen major artists, many of whom have had past association with or have exhibited at PEER, have very generously donated works for an auction at Sotheby’s on 15 March 2016. The funds raised will enable the completion of the building works and launch of the new space. Artists include: Phyllida Barlow, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Hannah Collins, Keith Coventry, Martin Creed, Angela de la Cruz, Tracey Emin, Anya Gallaccio, Joy Gerrard, Antony Gormley, Callum Innes, Elizabeth Magill, Chris Ofili, Cornelia Parker, Grayson Perry, Gavin Turk and Mark Wallinger. 

PEER is an arts charity that has commissioned and presented more than a hundred exhibitions, publications, events and public realm projects over nearly 20 years. Based in Shoreditch since 1999 and on Hoxton’s High Street since 2002, its core ethos is to engage the widest possible audiences by offering high quality art as part of daily life. PEER has done this through its ambitious programme of projects with many celebrated artists such as Fiona Banner, Martin Creed, Siobhan Hapaska, Antony McCall, Bob & Roberta Smith, and Danh Vo, amongst others. PEER offers both emerging and established artists the opportunity to test bold ideas in an intimate environment that stimulates experimentation and dialogue. 

 

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Angela de la Cruz, PEER Gallery