Thomas J Price at Art in the Park, Zurich
View sculptures by the British artist this summer at Baur au Lac
The 2023 edition of Baur au Lac’s annual ‘Art in the Park XXI’ will feature a collection of new and recent works by multidisciplinary artist, Thomas J Price, on view 12 June through 16 July 2023. Price has rapidly become one of the most important British contemporary sculptors of his generation, prompting us to question who society deems worthy of a monument and how we collectively occupy space. Price intentionally chooses not to portray specific individuals but instead presents imaginary, constructed characters, amalgamated from multiple sources through intuitive digital technology. Despite their scale, the figures appear unassuming and instantly recognizable, dismantling power structures propagated by traditional sculpture.
Installation view, Thomas J Price, Baur au Lac, Zurich, 2023 © Thomas J Price. Photo: Jon Etter
Installation view, Thomas J Price, All In (detail), 2021, Baur au Lac, Zurich, 2023 © Thomas J Price. Photo: Jon Etter
The symbolic hierarchy of materials and their cultural significance is a theme that resonates throughout Price’s practice, allowing us to reconsider our conditioned understanding of value and status. Price centralizes his ‘everyday’ figures by attaching them to a revered sculptural language recognised within the traditional art canon, employing golden and verdigris patinas associated with romanticized representations of luxury and splendor. With both ‘Reaching Out’ (2020) and ‘Signals’ (2021), Price presents contemporary characters balancing experiences of isolation alongside a desire to remain connected, questioning how we interpret social cues and interact in public spaces. These figures are reconfigured in ‘All In’ (2021) and ‘Moments Contained’ (2022), demonstrating Price’s sophisticated manipulation of scale, presentation and posture to continually shift the viewers’ perception of the figures they are encountering.
Thomas J Price lives and works in London. In 2021, Price was commissioned by Hackney Council to create the first permanent public sculptures to celebrate the contribution of the Windrush generation and their descendants in the UK, unveiled in June 2022. Price’s solo presentation, ‘Witness,’ with The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY was on view in Marcus Garvey Park from 2021 – 2022. Price has major forthcoming institutional projects in 2023 with the V&A Museum, London, UK and The National Portrait Gallery, London, UK, alongside his first comprehensive solo exhibition in the US, titled ‘Beyond Measure,’ at Hauser & Wirth Downtown Los Angeles from 23 May 2023.
