Ashley Bickerton

Infobox Artist
name = Ashley Bickerton


caption = "Made's Warung" 2006
"image courtesy Lehmann Maupin Gallery"
birthdate = 1959
location = Barbados
field = Contemporary Art
training = California Institute of the Arts, Whitney Museum Independent Study Program
works =
patrons =
awards =

Ashley Bickerton (born Barbados, 1959) is a contemporary artist living in Bali.Holland Cotter, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F05E6DE133EF93AA25756C0A9609C8B63 "Art in Review; Ashley Bickerton"] , "The New York Times", May 19, 2006.] A mixed-media artist, Bickerton often combines both photographic and painterly elements with industrial and found object assemblages. He is associated the early 1980s art movement Neo-Geo, [Tim Woods, "Beginning Postmodernism", Manchester University Press, 1999, p126. ISBN 0719052114] which includes artists such as Jeff Koons and Peter Halley.

Life

Born in Barbados in 1959, Bickerton is the son of Derek Bickerton, a linguist and scholar of Creole and pidgin languages. His father's research work caused his family to move around the globe every several years. As a child Ashley Bickerton lived in a number of countries across four continents. The family finally settled in Hawaii in 1972. British by birth, Bickerton became a naturalized US citizen in the mid-1980s. He spent 12 years in New York where he established his career before finally settling on the island of Bali in 1993 where he resides to this day.

Career

Bickerton graduated from the California Institute of the Arts in 1982 before moving to New York to attend the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program. After exhibiting for a few years in New York, he was included in a four person show at the Sonnabend Gallery in 1986. The exhibition launched the careers of a quartet of young artists that collectively came to be known as the "Fantastic Four," and includes Jeff Koons, Peter Halley and Meyer Vaisman. These artists formed the core of what came to be known as the "Neo-Geo" movement. Over the last twenty-five years, Bickerton has exhibited his work internationally and is included in public art and museum collections. He has had solo exhibitions at Lehman Maupin Gallery (2006, 2008), Sonnabend Gallery, (2000, [Dominique Nahas, [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_2_88/ai_59450192 "Ashley Bickerton at Sonnabend"] , "Art in America", Feb 2000.] 2004, 2006), both in New York, and White Cube in London (2001).

His works are held in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art [ [http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A551&page_number=1&template_id=6&sort_order=1 moma.org] ] and the Tate. [ [http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ArtistWorks?cgroupid=999999961&artistid=2296&page=1 tate.org.uk] ]

Works

Ashley Bickerton's work has explored issues in contemporary art related to the commidification of the art object itself. Often his objects are grotesque in a self-aware manner and are often a critique of capitalism.

Early constructions

In the 1980s Bickerton made a series of works which resembled packing cases and crates, covered with corporate logos. [Irit Rogoff, "Terra Infirma: Geography's Visual Culture", Routledge, 2000, p60. ISBN 0415096154] His early work is noted for its display corporate logos and constructions titled as either "Self-Portraits," "Commercial pieces," or "Anthropospheres." They are typically Assemblages of technological or industrial materials with the inclusion of found elements and screen printed iconographic images. These seemingly functional objects without clear purpose are often covered in various logos, technological signage, and codes. His artwork "Abstract Painting for People 4" made in 1987 in now included in the collection of François Pinault as of 2007.

ingapore Tyler Print Institute

The mixed-media pieces he made in collaboration with the Singapore Tyler Print Institute are "spooky" images of green-skinned creatures emerging from a sea littered with cans and bottles.

Recent works

. His work in 2006 and 2007 has taken the form of large format digital prints and paintings with thick wooden frame constructions with vairous inlays. These elements can be seen in "Made's Warung" 2006 and "Green Head with Inlay 1" 2007.

References

External links

* [http://lehmannmaupin.com Lehmann Maupin Gallery]
* [http://www.artnet.com/Galleries/Artists_detail.asp?G=&gid=139120&which=&aid=553557&ViewArtistBy=online&rta=http://www.artnet.com Sonnabend Gallery, "Ashley Bickerton"]
* [http://www.stpi.com.sg/files/artists/ashley_works.htm Singapore Tyler Print Institute, "Ashley Bickerton"]