New Work. Darren Almond

About

Working in photography, film, installation, sculpture and painting, Almond makes work which explores ideas about time, space, history and memory and how these abstract concepts intersect and impact on the individual. He also examines the symbolic and emotional potential of objects, places and situations to produce works that have historical as well as personal significance. At the very core of his work is an exploration of time and space and for the viewer, they raise fundamental questions about our very existence.

In the gallery, Almond will show a series of 'Timescape' paintings, which explore his preoccupation with time and space to their absolute limits. They suggest the conundrum, that although we know a certain amount about deep space, there is still so much that remains - at least for now - unknowable. Conceptually, these depictions of the outer reaches of the cosmos engulf us in the beauty of the Milky Way; the colourful and dreamlike atmospheres which Almond has captured ultimately remind us of our insignificance within the enormity of the universe. As we cannot fully define the concept of infinity, we rely on the digital language of numbers to create a reassuring sense of artificial structure. Almond's ongoing series of number paintings in the exhibition explore these artificial structures in a mirrored work of broken zeroes which, again, insert us into the equation: we are confronted with the beginning of time, our own reflection placing us within a continuum. Despite their overt rigour, all Almond's works begin with his emotional engagement with a subject, which is perhaps most apparent with his 'train-plate' series. At their simplest they refer to a boyhood love of locomotives, but also signify connectivity, not only of commerce and industry but of consciousness and thought as well, and the texts he uses often refer more widely to our place in the world. For example, the work which also gives the exhibition its title, ultimately suggests "an awareness of who we are and where we are, without light there would be no shadow".

Darren Almond (b. 1971) has had recent solo exhibitions at SCAI the Bathhouse, Tokyo (2016); Kunsthaus Graz (2015); Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire (2012); Villa Merkel, Esslingen; and FRAC Haute Normandie (2011) amongst others. His work has been included in numerous group shows such as Fire under Snow, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk (2016); The Nothing That Is, Royal Academy, London; Photographing Monet ́s Gardens: Five Contemporary Views, Musée des Impressionismes, Giverny (2015). His work also featured in Sublime, les tremblements du mondeat at Centre Pompidou-Metz. Darren Almond's works are held in major collections around the world including Fondation Beyeler, Basel; Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; MoMA, New York and Tate, London. He was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2005 for his exhibition at K21, Düsseldorf.