Richard Wentworth

NoguerasBlanchard is pleased to present the first solo exhibition by artist Richard Wentworth in Madrid and featuring new sculpture. Richard Wentworth, with his approaches to language and etymological concerns, along with the use of archetypal objects, has played a leading role in the new British sculpture since the late 1970s. Generating evocative images from everyday objects, whose combination awakens an estrangement in the collective memory and imagination, Wentworth expands our understanding of the world and truncates conventional and hegemonic systems.

Lecciones Aprendidas refers to what Wentworth calls the “accident” of having learned Spanish during his childhood and its effects on the configuration of the pieces produced for this exhibition. Also the fact of having read Lorca during his childhood and having met Bigas Luna and Fernando Amat during the 70s cemented his particular vision, humor and melancholy, as well as his willingness to search for other possible configurations of the real, “I think that those early experiences made me aware of the threads of power and their reach”.

Wentworth uses materials taking into account their anthropological roots and making sense of the moments of clarity that may arise from overlaps between seemingly unrelated things. Thus, in Lecciones Aprendidas we are faced with combinations of building materials from both the United Kingdom and Spain, history books and dictionaries, broken glass and mirrors, elements of various uses but manufactured with the same metal; as well as measurements and forms that are repeated throughout the exhibition.

Richard Wentworth’s interest in transforming the world lies in the simple fact of knowing that the world has already been built and transformed by others; a simple walk through the city becomes a dizzying experience, Wentworth’s gaze vibrates and sways between its structures and systems, deciphering a language that otherwise might go unnoticed.

Richard Wentworth was born in Samoa in 1947. Lives and works in London, United Kingdom.

His major solo presentations include: SWG3, with Victoria Miguel, Glasgow International, Glasgow (2018); Galerie Azzedine Alaïa, Paris (2017); Peckham, London (2015); Black Maria, with Gruppe, Kings Cross, London (2013); Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010); 52nd Venice Biennale (2009); Tate Liverpool, Liverpool (2005); Artangel, London (2002); Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn (1998); Kettke’s Yard, Cambridge (1998); Stedelijk Museum, Hertogesbosch (1994); Serpentine Gallery, London (1993). Recent group exhibitions include: Found, Foundling Museum, London (2016); Double Act: Art and Comedy, MAC Belfast, Belfast (2016); History is Now, Hayward Gallery, London (2015); Somewhat Abstract, Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham (2014).