We Ain't dED Yet

An assisted ready-made, where a piece of gold foil, a crumpled chocolate wrapper is inserted into an empty water bottle, creating an agitprop Molotov cocktail. The title ‘Fire Water’ suggests a strong alcoholic drink that burns the throat. 

“In today’s political and environmental climate, it is more important than ever to decouple education and the arms trade, and bring about peace and understanding"- Gavin Turk 

http://gavinturk.com
@thisisnotgavinturk

Gavin Turk (b 1967) is a British born, internationally renowned artist, who lives and works in London. He has pioneered many forms of contemporary British sculpture, including the painted bronze, the waxwork, the recycled art-historical icon and the use of rubbish in art. Turk’s installations and sculptures deal with issues of authorship, authenticity and identity. Concerned with the ‘myth’ of the artist and ontological questioning. Turk’s engagement with this modernist, avant-garde debate stretches back to the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp. In 1991, the Royal College of Art refused Turk a degree on the basis that his final show, ‘Cave’, consisted of a whitewashed studio space containing only a blue heritage plaque commemorating his presence ‘Gavin Turk worked here 1989-91'. Instantly gaining notoriety through this installation, Turk was spotted by Charles Saatchi and was included in several YBA exhibitions.

Gavin Turk’s work is held within public and private collections worldwide, including but not limited to the TATE, Museum of Modern Art New York, Museum MMK Für Moderne Kunst, Musée Magritte Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

In 2013 Prestel published Turk’s first monograph, showcasing more than two decades of his work and in 2014 Trolley Books published ‘This Is Not A Book About Gavin Turk’ which playfully explores themes associated with the artist’s work via thirty notable contributors.

EDUCATION

1989 -1991 Royal College of Art
1986 -1989 Chelsea School of Art

SELECTED PUBLIC SCULPTURES

2022 Ariadne Wrapped, Painted bronze, Cambridge Station Square, Cambridge
2019 LÂge d’Or, Painted bronze, Fenix Movers Museum, Sculpture International Rotterdam
2018 The Spirit of Painting, Painted aluminium, The Coronet Theatre, Kensington, London
2017 Axis Mundi, Patinated bronze & stainless steel, Paddington Basin, London
2016 L’Âge d’Or, Painted Bronze, Here East, London
2013 Ajar (Highbury), Painted bronze, Highbury, London
2011 Nail, patinated bronze, One New Change, St Paul’s Cathedral, London

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

KERZE, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London (cat.), 2022
In Search of Ariadne, The Heong Gallery, Cambridge (cat.), 2022 
Artist’s Piss, Bateman Street, London, 2021 
Eggshibition, Canning Town, London, 2020 
En Oeuf, Maruani Mercier, Brussels (cat.), 2019 
Letting Go, Reflex Amsterdam (cat.), 2019 
White Van Man, IvoryPress, Madrid (cat.), 2018
White Van Man, Paul Stolper Gallery, London, 2018
Gavin Turk Works, Maruani Mercier & Hadida, Paris, France, 2018
God is Gone, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria, 2018
History of Art, Mimmo Scognamiglio artecontemporanea, Milan, Italy (cat.), 2017
Give In, Ben Brown Fine Arts, London, 2017
Who What When Where How and Why, Newport Street Gallery, London (cat.), 2016
GT, Jablonka Maruani Mercier Gallery, Knokke, Belgium (cat.), 2016
Petroleum, Baldwin Gallery, USA, 2016
Water Biscuit, The Box, Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London, 2016
Wittgenstein’s Dream, Freud Museum, London, 2015 
A Vision, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria, 2015
Yard, CCA Andratx, Mallorca, Spain, 2015 
The Mechanical Turk, Metropole Hotel, Venice, 2015 
Gav, Bruchium – Al Forno: Historical Bakery, Venice, 2015 
Now, Somerset House, London, 2015 
We Are One, New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury, UK, 2014 
A, Ben Brown Fine Arts, Hong Kong, 2014 
Liqueur d’Expédition, Christian Larsen, Stockholm, Sweden, 2014 
Seven Billion Two Hundred and One Million, Nine Hundred and Sixty Four Thousand, 2014 
And Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight, The Bowes Museum, County Durham, UK (cat.), 2014 
Seven Billion Two Hundred and One Million, Nine Hundred and Sixty Four Thousand And Two Hundred and Thirty-Eight, New Art Centre, Roche Court, Salisbury, UK, 2014 
Vestige, Foundation Frances, France, 2014 
Pense Bete, LARM Galleri, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2014 
L’Amour Fou, David Nolan Gallery, New York, USA, 2013
The Years, Ben Brown Gallery, London (cat.), 2013
GT, The Monaco Project for the Arts, Ecole Supérieure d’Arts Plastique de la Ville de Monaco (cat.), 2013
Vanacular, The Gervasuti Foundation at the 55 th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy, 2013
Transit Disaster, Paul Stolper Gallery, London, 2012 
Türk, Galerist, Istanbul, Turkey, 2012 
Gunslinger, Patricia Low Contemporary, St. Moritz, Switzerland, 2012 
Gavin & Turk, Ben Brown Gallery, London (cat.), 2012 
Jack Shit!, Aeroplastics, Brussels, Belgium, 2011 
Before The World Was Round, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria, 2011 
En Face Vienna, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria, 2011 
Me As He, Patricia Low Contemporary, Gstaad, Switzerland, 2011 
Something Like This, Park Ryu Sook Gallery, Seoul, Korea (cat.), 2010 
En Face, Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France, 2010 
Les Bikes de Bois Rond , Artconnexion, Lille, France, 2010 
Les Bikes de Bois Rond, Fleet: Art In The Haven Ports, UK, 2010 
En Face, CAC Malaga, Spain (cat.), 2010
The Mirror Stage, Goodman Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa, 2009
Turkey Foil, Aurel Scheibler Gallery, Berlin, Germany, 2009 
Gavin Turk Ltd, Paul Stolper, London, 2009 
Jazzz, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, New York, USA, 2009 
Gavin Turk, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels, Belgium, 2008 
Burnt Out, Kunsthaus Baselland, Basel, Switzerland, 2008 
Piss Off, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria, 2008 
Me as Him, Riflemaker, London (cat.), 2007 
Negotiation of Purpose, GEM Museum for Contemporary Art, The Hague, Netherlands, 2007 
The Negotiation of Purpose, Magasin Centre National d’Art Contemporian, Grenoble, France, 2007 
Waste Not Want Not, Galleri Veggerby, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2006 
Wanted, The Suburban, Illinois, USA, 2006 
The Font Project, Fine Art Society, London (cat.), 2006 
Last Year in Eggenberg (The Paradise Show), Schloss Eggenberg, Graz, Austria, 2006 
Ha ha ha! Galerie Almine Rech, Paris, France, 2005 
White Elephant, Sean Kelly Gallery, New York, New York, USA, 2005 
Melange, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria, 2005 
Gavin Turk Faces, Edinburgh Print Makers, Endinburgh, Scotland, 2004 
Faces: A Print Portfolio by Gavin Turk, Badcocks, Cornwall, UK, 2004 
The Golden Thread, White Cube Gallery, London, 2004 
Subsistence, Galleri Veggerby, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2003 
Et in Arcadia Eggo, New Art Centre Sculpture Park & Gallery Roche Court, Salisbury, UK, 2003 
Gavin Turk in the House, Sherborne House, Dorset, UK (cat.), 2003 
Spare Change, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin, Germany, 2003 
Gavin Turk Oeuvre, Tate Britain Sculpture Court, London, 2002 
Copper Jubilee, The New Art Gallery, Walsall, UK (cat.), 2002 
The Che Guevara Story, Foundry, London, 2001 
More Stuff, Centre d’Art Contemporian, Geneva, Switzerland, 2000
Fig-1: 50 Projects in 50 Weeks, Fig-1, London (cat.), 2000 
The Importance of Being Ernesto, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, Austria, 1999
The Stuff Show, South London Gallery, London, 1998
Gavin Turk Studio Show, Charing Cross Road, London, 1997 
Unoriginal Signature, Habitat, Kings Road, London, 1996 
British Art in Rome, Galleria D’Arte De Crescenzo & Vesti, Rome, Italy, 1996 
Turkish, Aurel Scheibler, Cologne, Germany, 1995
Collected Works 1989-1993, Jay Jopling, Denmark Street, London, 1993 
A Night Out With Gavin Turk, Victoria Public House, Bapisha Ghosh, London and Schiefer Haus, Cologne, Germany, 1993
A Marvellous Force of Nature, White Cube, London, 1993
Signature, Bipasha Ghosh / Jay Jopling, London, 1992 

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Turk has exhibited in numerous group shows and fairs including: Photo London, Royal Academy of Arts (London), Saatchi Gallery (London), Centre pompidou (France), MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (Spain), Tate Modern (London), Tate Liverpool, Barbican Art Galleries (London), White Cube (London), Almine Rech Gallery (Belgium, France), New Orleans Museum of Art (USA), Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (USA) and more.