Martin Creed
° 1968, Wakefield (UK) – lives and works in London (UK) and Alicudi (IT)
Martin Creed merges art and life, using ordinary materials and everyday situations to create multimedia works that have confounded and delighted viewers and critics for nearly 30 years. Creed rejects the term “conceptual” and calls himself an “expressionist,” referring to his notion that all art stems from feeling. His works range from deadpan, minimalist interventions to rapidly rendered, expressionistic portraits.
Creed approaches the artistic process with humour, anxiety, and experimentation, and with the sensibility of a musician and composer, underpinning everything he does with his open ambiguity on the definition of art.
Awarded the Turner Prize in 2001 for Work 227: the lights going on and off, Creed steadfastly remains a master of the overlooked moment. A crumpled ball of A4 paper, a stack of tiles piled on a floor, a wedged doorstop securing a door open at 45 degrees, neon signs bearing throw-away phrases such as ‘DON’T WORRY’, blu tack appended to a wall; Creed’s treatment of the commonplace is precisely why the seemingly insubstantial carries a surprising emotional charge.
The artist’s expressive methods, through which he gives the viewer pause, are simple, yet graceful. The freedom of interpretation and the interconnection of people sustain his work.
(courtesy of Play Festival)
Martin Creed – Work No. 1000, at the Hayward Gallery, London in 2014.jpg
Martin Creed – Work No. 960, 2008, installation view at Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
Martin Creed – Work No. 2325, 2015
Martin Creed – Work No. 88 A sheet of paper crumpled into a ball, 1995
Martin Creed – Work No. 360 - Half the Air in a Given Space, 2015
Martin Creed – Work No. 3435, 2020
Martin Creed’s solo exhibitions include Tate Britain, London; Kunsthalle Bern; Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar; Phoenix Art Museum; Ikon, Birmingham; and Centre Pompidou, Metz. Group exhibitions include Fondazione Prada,Venice and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, and he participated in the biennales of Singapore, Lyon, Osaka, Venice and Sydney.
Martin Creed is represented by the following galleries;
click through to discover more of his work.
Gavin Brown’s enterprise, New York / Rome
You can also discover plenty about Martin Creed and his work on his own website.
