Whitechapel Gallery Spring/Summer 2017 Programme Announcement

Spring 2017 Programme

Major Exhibition

Eduardo Paolozzi
16 February – 14 May 2017, Galleries 1, 8 & Victor Petitgas Gallery (Gallery 9)
Media View: 15 February 2017, 10:00 – 13:00

The Whitechapel Gallery presents the first major retrospective in 40 years of British artist Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005), widely considered to be one of the most dynamic and irreverent British artists of the 20th century and a pioneering figure in the Pop-Art movement. Spanning five decades and featuring over 250 works the exhibition re-assesses Paolozzi’s varied artistic approach, from his post-War bronzes to revolutionary screen-prints and bold textile designs. Eduardo Paolozzi presents new research into previously overlooked works and lesser-known aspects of his practice and highlights the relevance of his work for artists today. The exhibition is presented in four chronological sections displaying key works including rarely seen textiles, drawings and animated films.Tickets on sale from 10 November 2016

Collection Display

Terrains of the Body: Photography from the National Museum of Women in the Arts
18 January – 16 April 2017, Gallery 7
Media View: 18 January 2017, 9:00 – 11:00

The Whitechapel Gallery presents a display of photography and video works drawn from collection of the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. Works by seventeen contemporary artists from five continents capture women on camera in domestic spaces and expansive landscapes. By turning their camera to women, including themselves, these artists embrace the female body as a vital medium for expressing identity, reflecting individual and collective experience, and forming narratives. The display features works by Marina Abramović, Rineke Dijkstra, Anna Gaskell, Nan Goldin, Charlotte Gyllenhammar, Candida Höfer, Icelandic Love Corporation, Mwangi Hutter, Kirsten Justesen, Justine Kurland, Nikki S. Lee, Hellen van Meene, Shirin Neshat, Daniela Rossell, Eve Sussman and the Rufus Corporation, Janaina Tschäpe and Adriana Varejão. The National Museum of Women in the Arts is the only international museum dedicated to the exhibition, preservation, and acquisition of works by women artists. Free

Commission

Alicja Kwade
Until 25 June 2017, Gallery 2

Alicja Kwade (b. 1979) presents her first project for a major UK gallery, a captivating installation of astronomical data and our position in the universe. Featuring bronze sculptures of giant, pre-historic vertebrae and a film inspired by NASA data of extrasolar meteors, the commission centres around a large mobile of 24 electronic star maps. Slowly rotating in concentric circles, the mobile is accompanied by readings from the book of Genesis. Free

Archive Display

Q&A: Artists in Conversation
11 March – August 2017, Pat Matthews Gallery (Gallery 4)

 This display reveals the Whitechapel Gallery’s rich archive of artist interviews to enable visitors to hear, see and read artists in their own words. A selection of material from other sources including recorded and published discussions, as well as informal communications, will draw the links between artistic production and artists’ biographical life. The exhibition consists of artists’ conversations conducted in a variety of styles, formats and mediums of communication such as email, radio, and recordings. Highlights include director Bryan Robertson’s dialogue with US artist Robert Rauschenberg on the occasion of his 1964 Whitechapel Gallery exhibition and audio recordings of talks given by German artist Rosemarie Trockel and American minimalist Carl Andre. The exhibition also highlights artists’ approaches to interviewing as an integral part of their work, with contributions from Marysia Lewandowska’s Women’s Audio Archives and others. The Whitechapel Gallery archive exhibitions are generously supported by Catherine and Franck Petitgas. Free

Education Display

Children’s Commission: Assemble with Granby Workshop: Brickfield
18 January – 16 April 2017, Outset Project Gallery (Gallery 5) & 176/ Zabludowicz Collection Project Gallery (Gallery 6)
Media View: 18 January 2017, 9:00 – 11:00

The Whitechapel Gallery invites Turner prize winning architecture collective Assemble to create a new project for the annual Children’s Commission. Brickfield explores one of the city’s structural components, brick, through an installation comprised of raw clay, fired and unfired bricks developed with the Granby Workshop as part of their community-led rebuilding of a neighbourhood in Liverpool. Brickfield demonstrates Assemble’s interest in the process of ‘making learning’ and also explores the role self-organisation, improvisation and chance play in the development of the built environment and the ways in which collective action can bring about positive change. Alongside this Commission the Gallery works with a local community centre and a primary school to explore clay and its connections to the history of Whitechapel’s surrounding area. Free

Artists’ Film International

In 2017 this series of international artists’ films focuses on the subject of collaboration. This year also sees the 10th anniversary of Artists’ Film International which will be marked by events throughout the year, including a special screening event during the Venice Biennale in May.

Mikhail Karikis, Oliver Ressler / Dario Azzellini
24 January – 26 March 2017, Zilkha Auditorium

Ain’t Got No Fear’ (2016) by Mikhail Karikis (b. 1975, Greece) was created with a group of boys from the industrial marshland of the Isle of Grain in South East England. Using the sound of a neighbouring power plant being demolished as their beat, the boys rap lyrics about their past memories and possible futures, while questioning established notions of territory and authority. Meanwhile, artist Oliver Ressler (b. 1970, Austria) and author-filmmaker Dario Azzellini (b. 1967, Germany) follow how former Italian rail service workers occupied and converted one of their shutdown factories ‘Officine Zero’ into a collective recycling workshop,  reflecting on the sustainable methods of collaborative working and thinking. Mikhail Karikis is selected by Whitechapel Gallery; Oliver Ressler / Dario Azzellini by Video-Forum of Neuer Berliner Kunstverein (n.b.k.), Berlin, Germany

Ane Hjort Guttu, Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley
28 March 2017 – 28 May 2017, Zilkha Auditorium

In How to Become a Non-Artist (2007), Ane Hjort Guttu (b. 1971, Norway) looks at small arrangements of everyday objects by her four year-old son and offers an in-depth commentary about these inadvertent works of art. Mary Reid Kelley (b. 1979, USA) collaborates with her partner Patrick Kelley (b.1969) on the stylised black and white video This is Offal (2016), an absurdist take on TV medical dramas in which the organs of a young woman’s body argue about the cause of her death. Ane Hjort Guttu by Tromsø Kunstforening, Tromsø, Norway; Mary Reid Kelley with Patrick Kelley are selected by Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, US

Events Highlights

Whitechapel Gallery Art Icon 2017 with Swarovksi
25 January 2017, Whitechapel Gallery

A glamorous gala to honour the achievements of one of our greatest living artists, Peter Doig, while raising funds to support the Whitechapel Gallery’s Education and Community programmes, which work with thousands of children and young people each year. The award was previously given to Howard Hodgkin (2014), Richard Long (2015) and Joan Jonas (2016). In partnership with Swarovski.

Further highlights include:

Eduardo Paolozzi, talks and events (February – May)
A number of events expand on the themes explored in the exhibition, including an evening of performance featuring artist Anthea Hamilton (30 March, 7pm, £5/£3.50 concs) an introduction to Paolozzi with the exhibition curator Daniel F. Herrmann (18 February, 3pm, £12.50/£10.50 concs), and a day-long symposium inspired by the artist’s 1985 exhibition Lost Magic Kingdoms and Six Paper Moons from Nahuatl (25 March, 2–6pm, £15.50/£13.50 concs).

Max Mara Art Prize for Women: Emma Hart, talk (9 March, 7pm)
The London-based artist and winner of the winner of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women presents an event inspired by her research interests, including family structures and social class, as well as the notion of the constructed ‘situation’. (£9.50/£7.50 concs). Supported by Max Mara and Collezione Maramotti.

Alicja Kwade: Maps to the Stars, talk (6 April, 7pm)
Prompted by Alicja Kwade’s commission and led by astronomers from the Royal Observatory, this event delves into the relationship between astronomy and culture, exploring the history of star mapping and the desire to locate ourselves within the universe. (£9.50/£7.50 concs). In association with Royal Observatory Greenwich, Royal Museums Greenwich.

Summer 2017 Programme

Upcoming exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery in summer 2017 include a historical group exhibition titled A Handful of Dust.

ISelf Collection
27 April – 20 August 2017, Gallery 7

From Surrealist selfies to self-portraiture by Cindy Sherman and Tracy Emin, this inaugural display of the ISelf Collection, the first of four, examines individual identity, the body and the human condition from the perspectives of twenty artists. By looking at a selection of physical, psychological, and imaginary self-portraits it aims to reveal the complex dynamics below the surface of appearances. Free

A Handful of Dust
7 June – 3 September 2017, Gallery 8 & Victor Petitgas Gallery (Gallery 9)

Beginning with a 1920 photograph taken by Man Ray of Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass covered in dust, this exhibition, conceived by David Campany, is a speculative history of the last century, featuring more than 30 artists and photographers – including Marcel Duchamp, Man Ray, Walker Evans, Mona Kuhn, Gerhard Richter, Sophie Ristelhueber, Shomei Tomatsu, Jeff Wall and Nick Waplington – alongside press photos and magazine spreads of aerial reconnaissance, the American dustbowl, Mussolini’s final car journey, the wars in Iraq and more. The exhibition originated at Le Bal, Paris in 2015. Free

Visitor/Listings Information
Entry to the Whitechapel Gallery is free.
Admission to Eduardo Paolozzi: £13.50/£11.95 (without Gift Aid). Tickets on sale from 10 November 2016.
Opening times: Tuesday – Sunday, 11am – 6pm; Thursdays, 11am – 9pm.
T + 44 (0) 20 7522 7888, info@whitechapelgallery.org, whitechapelgallery.org
Address: Whitechapel Gallery, 77 – 82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX
Nearest London Underground Station: Aldgate East, Liverpool Street, Tower Gateway DLR.

For more information, interviews and images, contact:
Anna Jones, Media Relations Manager
T: + 44 (0)20 7522 7871 / E: annajones@whitechapelgallery.org