RACHEL THORLBY at MADDER139, London, 9 Oct - 15 Nov

Exhibition Description:

MADDER139 will be presenting the first solo show of contemporary artist Rachel Thorlby. The exhibition will include a combination of drawing and sculpture. Thorlby juxtaposes the old with the new to contrast the elaborate with the everyday. She works from reproductions of historical portraits - snipping, enlarging and cajoling the two dimensional image into sculptural form.

Thorlby replaces classic sculptural materials such as marble and gilt with more rudimentary tools like cardboard and paper. Yet through these matt, sheenless surfaces she manages to reinvents the rich exuberance of the original materials. Her disruption of our customary methods of observation has the effect of breaking the recognisable images out of their historical and social context that embody the personal, the treasured and the saved, and replaces this with what is ordinary, disposable and everyday.

Thorlby's drawings also show this fascination with the disparity between the ordinary and the magnificence of the past. By reconstructing the depictions borne out of past encounters between artist and sitter Rachel Thorlby's work breathes new life into these forgotten entities.

Thorlby graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2007 and has won many awards, including the Celeste Student Prize 2007, the Peoples Prize at the National Eisteddfod of Wales, the Wysing Arts Artist Development Award, the Davis Langdon Award and the Oppenheim John Downes Memorial Award. She was also shortlisted for the ArtSway Open07 and has been selected for Future50 at PSL in Leeds.

Full Contact Details:

137-139 WHITECROSS STREET LONDON EC1Y 8JL
+44 (0)20 7490 3667 info (at) madder139.com
Open Wednesday Thursday Friday 12-6 Saturday 12-5
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