For his first solo exhibition in a public gallery in London, American artist Oscar Tuazon presents a new body of works especially commissioned by The David Roberts Art Foundation.

Opening reception 9th of July, 6.30-9pm

Exhibition running from 10th of July to 19 of September 2009

Writer, publisher and curator, Oscar Tuazon is above all one of the most captivating and radical sculptors of his generation. Tuazon’s practice is characterised by a form of contemporary sculpture bricolage, which recalls Arte Povera in its inventive use of natural and industrial materials. References to minimalism and artists such as Richard Serra or Sol LeWitt can be found in the formal structure and positioning of his sculptures and installations.

Tuazon’s use of raw materials infuses his work with an energy and tension, which sets him firmly within the lineage of Gordon Matta-Clark and Robert Smithson. However, the way he considers this heritage draws upon concepts prevalent in contemporary culture, such as ideas of collapse and ruin, recycling and reforming.

For his project at The David Roberts Art Foundation, Tuazon was asked to challenge the space. He will create a new body of site-specific sculptures, working with marble for the first time. Using materials in new and unexpected ways he questions the gallery’s architecture and the public’s interaction with it.

Tuazon’s starting point for this exhibition was the desire to create an autonomous artwork. “Starting with a kind of abstraction and pushing it towards function. Take something and use it, misuse it. So the autonomous work of art wouldn’t necessarily tend towards emptiness, negation, blankness—but towards function.  This ‘abstract function’ is a more straight-forward, literal idea of autonomy than Ad Reinhardt would have it: it is simply a self-contained artwork, something that can stand on its own. An object, actually, that doesn’t need any kind of support structure. It doesn’t need a wall, it doesn’t need lights, it doesn’t even need to be displayed inside. It’s just a thing. It can be left outside, left alone. It doesn’t even need to be looked at. And so it remains stubbornly abstract. Abstract in the sense that it doesn’t need anyone. It can function on its own, but the only function the object is capable of performing is that of an artwork, useless and inexplicable. To put it another way, the work is onanistic.”