GROUP EXHIBITION

Collaborations is a joint exhibition between Lisson Gallery and STPI which brings together a careful selection of paintings, sculpture, video and works on paper by prolific artists Richard Deacon, Ryan Gander, Shirazeh Houshiary, Jason Martin and Jorinde Voigt. The showcase highlights their evolving practice as established artists – but moreover – as collaborators, revealing the sort of interaction, influence and break in habit that results from their artistic “collision” with the team at STPI.

Turner Prize winner Richard Deacon's abstract forms have placed him at the helm of British sculpture since the 1980s and, hugely influential, his works are visible in major public commissions around the world. Deacon describes himself as a 'fabricator', emphasizing the construction behind the finished object and the logic of the fabrication is often exposed, highlighting the reactive nature of the process. Deacon embraced the potential of paper at STPI in 2011 to develop forms that explored the relationship between volume and space.

Conceptual artist Ryan Gander has established an international reputation with artworks that materialise in many different forms from sculpture to film, writing, graphic design, installation, performance and more. Through associative thought processes that connect the everyday and the esoteric, the overlooked and the commonplace, Gander's work involves a questioning of language and knowledge, and a reinvention of the modes of appearance and creation of an artwork, encouraging viewers to invent narratives or draw their own connections. Gander was an STPI residency artist in 2014.

“I set out to capture my breath – to find the essence of my own existence, transcending name, nationality, cultures.” Shirazeh Houshiary's broad practice encompasses painting, installation, architectural projects and film. While veils, membranes and mists are leitmotifs in her work, where she tries to visualise modes of perception, the core of her practice is drawn from the tension that arises from the universe's gradual disintegration and state of erosion, and humanity's efforts of stabilizing that process. Houshairy returns to complete her residency in September and will have her solo exhibition at the gallery in March 2016.

Jason Martin effects oscillations between sculpture and painting, with the vigor of action painting but a controlled hand. He is perhaps best known of this monochromatic paintings, where layers of oil or acrylic gel are dragged across hard surfaces such as aluminium, stainless steel or Plexiglas with a fine, comb-like piece of metal or board in one movement, often repeated many times. Martin is slated to begin his residency at STPi in March 2016.