CUBE 
28.02.03 - 08.05.03

 

Architect Will Alsop and artist Bruce McLean are pioneers of the collaborative process between artists and architects. For over twenty years Alsop & McLean have been enjoying annual creative encounters in Spain, meeting to produce large-scale, often highly colourful paintings and sculptural works. Of these collaborations in Malagarba, Menorca they say "we discover forms and relations that feed our individual disciplines." Although they have worked together for many years, this is the first exhibition to present their achievements.

Will Alsop belongs to a generation of modern architects which follows no single theoretical school. He believes that to build is to exercise the eye and the heart rather than the intellect. McLean's boldness of spirit and risk is combined with Alsop's organic and playful architectural resolutions, making for an exhibition that is fluid, experimental and spontaneous. Bruce McLean is one of the most respected artists working in Europe today; in the late 1960s he rethought the possibilities of sculpture, in the 70s he took up performance art and from the 80s onwards he has explored painting, furniture, prints, ceramics and architecture.

The two chairs of the exhibition title feature in the creation and photography of Alsop & McLean's collaborative work. Inclusion of two (generally identical) wooden chairs puts the vast canvasses in perspective when they are photographed and is a humourous allusion to the collaborative nature of the work. The exhibition title is also a pun on the fact that Alsop and McLean both hold active academic posts or 'chairs'. Architect Will Alsop and artist Bruce McLean are pioneers of the collaborative process between artists and architects. For over twenty years Alsop & McLean have been enjoying annual creative encounters in Spain, meeting to produce large-scale, often highly colourful paintings and sculptural works. Of these collaborations in Malagarba, Menorca they say "we discover forms and relations that feed our individual disciplines." Although they have worked together for many years, this was the first exhibition to present their achievements. The exhibition includes new work in response to the CUBE space and is accompanied by a book examining the work and nature of their unique collaboration.

Organised by Graeme Russell
Curated by Milton Keynes Gallery