JAMIE SHOVLIN
The Ties That Bind
Galleria 1/9 Unosunove arte contemporanea is delighted to announce the first solo exhibition in Italy of the young British artist Jamie Shovlin (1978, Leicester, UK). Esteemed as one of the most original artists working in Great Britain, Shovlin, whose work has been exhibited at internationally-renowned public institutions and is held in numerous important private collections, is perhaps best known for projects detailing fictional archives such as Naomi V. Jelish (2001-4) and Lustfaust: A Folk Anthology 1976-1981 (2003-6). In each of these projects, the artist created a series of mixed media artworks that were displayed alongside supposedly ‘official’ material presented to the viewer as a collection of authentic documents. Both of these works consider the tension between reality and fiction and the thin line that separates truth and invention – a major characteristic of the artist’s practice.
Most recently Shovlin’s work has focused on the United States and specifically how the world’s most powerful nation is differently perceived and portrayed from afar, through some of the various sources available – politics, music, sports, newspapers, and the Internet. Filtering his perceptions of such phenomena through his parents’ record collection and personal art historical canon, the artist has produced a series of carefully considered installations that include paintings, drawings, sculptures, found objects and neon.
The Ties That Bind examines the way in which selected events are subsumed into history whilst others remain forgotten, revealing the degree to which subjective interpretation affects historical perception. Concentrating on the latter part of the twentieth century, Shovlin has created a body of interconnected works that form a complex web of allusions and associations illustrating a period in American – and global – history marked by political upheaval and social struggles.
For any further information please contact:
gallery@unosunove.com