Back Thomas J Price Thoughts Unseen 2 Oct 2021 – 3 Jan 2022 Thomas J Price’s multidisciplinary practice confronts preconceived public attitudes towards representation and identity. Price challenges power structures that govern our society whilst examining learnt behaviour that guides our unconscious. Explore the exhibition The artist’s inaugural exhibition with Hauser & Wirth in Somerset, presents two decades of conceptual enquiry spanning film, early sculpture, and the artist’s largest figurative bronze to date. His personal approach readdresses historic narratives and inverts our sense of familiarity, distilling signifiers of status to question the mechanisms in place that reinforce our cultural values. Plan your visit Reaching Out Thomas J Price 2020 Corrance Road, Figure 1 Thomas J Price 2008 Tennyson Street, Figure 1 Thomas J Price 2008 Using methods of presentation, material and scale, Price explores expectations and assumptions, simultaneously drawing the viewer in whilst considering the space we create between ourselves and the work itself. Upon entering the first gallery, visitors will encounter ‘Reaching Out’ (2020), the artist’s widely celebrated public sculpture situated on The Line, London and The Donum Estate, California, installed within a gallery context for the first time. Head 17 Thomas J Price 2017 Mental Structure #19 (Just Beyond This) Thomas J Price 2017 All In Thomas J Price 2021 The larger-than-life figurative work stands alongside a new towering 12ft bronze, ‘All In’ (2021), each capturing ‘in-between’ moments of everyday contemporary subjects. Manifested from composite images, the fictional characters function as psychological portraits that despite their scale appear unassuming and instantly recognisable. The works focus our attention on the systemic marginalisation within public monuments, constructed through the artist’s hybrid approach of traditional sculpting and intuitive digital technology. Man on a Horse (Kings Avenue) Thomas J Price 2011 Numen (Shifting Votive One) Thomas J Price 2016 Numen (Shifting Votive Two) Thomas J Price 2016 This referencing of art history continues in Price’s long-established preoccupation with ancient Greek, Roman and Egyptian traditions of monumental sculpture, alongside an intrinsic understanding of the symbolic power and hierarchy of materials. In ‘Numen (Shifting Votive 1, 2, 3)’ (2016) Price combines classical lost-wax casting with aluminium, a material more commonly associated with modern engineering, to present a series of emblematic heads raised to eye-level on marble columns. Untitled (Icon 1) Thomas J Price 2017 Untitled (Icon 5) Thomas J Price 2017 Head 4 Thomas J Price 2012 Dispersed throughout the two galleries, the works embody archetypal objects of worship in a modern age, whilst uncovering the haptic depths of Price’s expanding range of mediums. Similarly, ‘Icon Series’ (2017) adopts gilding, a technique which dates to Ancient Egypt and amplifies a sense of luxury and splendor, alongside 3D printing. Placed on quartzite plinths the sculptures exude a powerful cultural resonance, challenging our awareness of current iconography and unmediated immortalization of triumphant figures. Price’s Icons gaze beyond the viewer consumed in their own thoughts and emotional worlds, reframing the image and associations of Black men in contemporary society today. Lay It Down (On The Edge Of Beauty) Thomas J Price 2018 Untitled (Head 24) Thomas J Price 2021 Untitled (Head 25) Thomas J Price 2021 Whilst the majority of Price’s oeuvre relates more closely to the male figure, ‘Lay It Down (On The Edge of Beauty)’ (2018) marks a poignant shift towards female identity and a shared Black experience. Placed within the entrance to the second gallery, the work extends Price’s line of enquiry into deities, illuminating universal threads within popular culture, media and fashion that relate to aspects and signifiers of Black womanhood. Spotlighting the stigma associated with hairstyles and formal conventions of beauty, as well as the lack of acknowledgment when they are reappropriated outside of their true origin. Harnessing the narrative power of performance, film and animation has been a consistent element throughout the artist’s career to date. ‘Man 10’ (2011), a stop-motion animation, demonstrates an early desire to respond to the history of racialisation and magnifies the complexities of deep social tensions. Drawing upon his own lived experience and commonplace observations, Price elevates our awareness of physiognomies and unconscious forms of communication. ‘From the Ground Up’ (2016), a 26-minute dual monitor film work, repeats the meticulous action of slowly lacing, polishing and cleaning footwear, framed by a stark white background. The multi-faceted self portrait of the artist speaks as much about his own identity as it does the material culture and value we place on objects and social cues more broadly. Man 10 Thomas J Price 2012 From the Ground Up Thomas J Price 2016 Power Object (Section 1, No.1) Thomas J Price 2018 This theme is extended in new modes of display within both ‘Power Object (Section 1, No.1)’ (2018) and ‘Sonic Work (Collective Palette #01)’ (2020/21), installed centrally within the second gallery. The two distinctly abstract bronze works share an aesthetic of 20th century modern masters, critiquing an art historical canon that has contributed to the objectification and misinterpretation of Black male identity. With ‘Power Object (Section 1, No.1)’ the title itself manipulates the dichotomy between our conditioned perception of power alongside the racial disparity of Britain’s stop and search policy, ‘Section 1, No.1’. Within the Folds (Dialogue 1) Thomas J Price 2021 Sonic Work (Collective Palette #01) Thomas J Price 2020/2021 Akerman Thomas J Price 2006 About the artist Thomas J Price has rapidly become one of the most important British contemporary artists of his generation, subverting stereotypical representations of figures we value in society and traditional power structures. After studying at Chelsea College of Art, he completed his MA at the Royal College of Art in 2006 and began further interrogating the language of monumentalism to question the status inherent in public sculptures. Price has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally, including solo exhibitions at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Bretton (2014), National Portrait Gallery, London (2016) and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2019). Learn more On View in Somerset ‘Thomas J Price. Thoughts Unseen’ is open at Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Tue – Sun, 10 am – 5 pm. Please visit our location page for further information. Plan your visit Inquire about available works by Thomas J Price Thomas J Price Thoughts Unseen – ‘Thomas J Price. Thoughts Unseen’ is on view now through 3 January 2022 at Hauser & Wirth Somerset. Plan your visit → © 2021 Hauser & Wirth | Terms & Conditions The artworks described above are subject to changes in availability and price without prior notice. Prices excl. VAT Facebook Instagram Twitter Weibo Youtube WeChat