Press Release

1301PE is pleased to present its third solo-exhibition with acclaimed British artist, Fiona Banner. Banner’s early work took inspiration from popular culture (cinema, language, pornography), in the form of wordscapes. Deploying big blocks of printed text, run-on and unpunctuated these wordscapes were scene-by-scene descriptions in the in her own words of war films and porn.

Fascinated with the nude as portrayed in the history of art, Banner has turned her attention to the female form, presenting a new series of text-based descriptions, made from life models. Utilizing words as opposed to line or color, Banner is able to reinvent the nude. More than just descriptive texts these works remain deeply engaged with the history of painting. Typically associated with the gaze of the male painters, Banner breaks new ground in describing the feminine form. These drawings work in a hyper-intimate way, between the viewer and the subject. Banner will also feature neon work that reads Nude Standing. Shaped by her own hand, the peach/ flesh color tone neon operates as an illuminated drawing for Banner’s wordscapes.

Fiona Banner was born in 1966. She lives and works in London. Banner is represented in various collections in the US and abroad including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum; The Arts Council of England; Tate Gallery, London; and the Walker Art Gallery, Minneapolis. In 2003, Banner was short-listed for the Turner Prize.

One-person museum exhibitions and projects include Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aachen and Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee in 2002; Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver in 2000; Statements, Basel Art Fair and ASTERISK, Gesellschaft fur Aktuelle Kunst, Bremen in 1999; Art Now Room, Tate Gallery, London in 1998; The Nam - 1000 page all text flick book, London in 1997; Pushing Back The Edge Of The Envelope, City Racing, London in 1994.

Selected group exhibitions include Eye on Europe, MOMA, New York in 2006; Tate Britain and Remix: Contemporary Art and Pop, Tate Liverpool in 2002; Total Object, Complete with Missing Parts, Tramway 2, Glasgow (curated by Andrew Renton) in 2001; Berlin Biennale, Berlin, (curated by Saskia Bos) in 2001; Cinema Cinema, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven in 1999; Slipstream, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow; Narrative Urge, Uppsala Konstmuseum, Sweden, and Point Break, Project for Tate Magazine (Commissioned by Tate Gallery, Liverpool) in 1998; Urban Legends - London, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany in 1997; Venice Biennale, Venice in 1995; Institute of Cultural Anxiety, ICA, London in 1994.

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About the Artist

Fiona Banner (b. 1966, Liverpool, UK) is an English artist, who was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2002. Much of Banner’s artistic practice illuminates the limitations and possibilities of language and its cultural parameters, investigating the slippage between object, image and text. Her multi-disciplinary practice encompasses drawing, film, sculpture, installation, as well as publishing and performance. Upon graduating from Goldsmiths College of Art in London in 1993, Banner came to prominence in the 1990s with her ‘wordscapes’, written transcriptions of iconic Hollywood war films retold frame-by-frame in the artist’s own stream-of-consciousness writing. The 1,000 page book The NAM (1997), for example, describes the plots of six Vietnam films in their entirety. As Banner has stated, “…a lot of my earlier work is about how things are expressed or can become manifest through words – how you can visualise passages of time through language.” Banner has long-standing fascination with the emblem of fighter aircraft and their role within culture, which has resulted, amongst others, in her monumental Harrier & Jaguar installation at the Tate Britain in 2010. Banner’s longstanding interest in Hollywood films, conflict and language has more recently led to set of interrelated bodies of work that investigate Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and its various iterations. Banner lives and works in London, where she runs her imprint The Vanity Press. Banner is represented in major collections including The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Philadelphia Museum; Walker Art Gallery, Minneapolis. Her work has been the subject of solo exhibitions and commissions at Tate Britain, London; Whitechapel Gallery, London; The Power Plant, Toronto; Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield; IKON, Birmingham and the DuPont, Tilburg, Netherlands.

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About the Gallery

Founded by Brian Butler in 1992, 1301PE is a contemporary art gallery exhibiting significant Los Angeles based artists as well as internationally established and acclaimed artists. The gallery is known for its exhibition of significant work across mediums. Founded on the principle of promoting Los Angeles artists worldwide, the gallery has been located at its current location in Miracle Mile, Los Angeles since 1998.

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