Merlot Damask, 2011

Many configurations of present day sculptural art, which have become widely accepted, such as recycled art, plaster casts, or the use of litter in artistic expression, were initially developed by British artist Gavin Turk. His models and fixtures, essentially address his concerns with originality in creation, legitimacy and uniqueness in art.Turk vigorously challenges our preconceived notions of 'personality status' and ownership in a figurative work, a debate which origins can be traced all the way back to French conceptual artist Marcel Duchamp. Turk who was born in England in 1967, has always been fully engaged in the avant garde discourse about creative innovation, self-infatuation and how genuine expression can be achieved. With razor-sharp wit and self deprecation, he analyses, through his own installations and pictures, how particular artworks manage to claim global critical and economic success, and how the artists themselves, become entangled the machinery of celebrity and power. Turk has added a new perspective to the study of the process of inventiveness and inspiration in popular culture, by subverting the value content of many famous 20th century artworks. By openly borrowing famous productions by Andy Warhol or Jackson Pollock for example, Turk put himself in a position to question the utility of stylistic originality in art. The great bulk of his personal body of work, meticulously challenges the cohesiveness of honesty in the presentation of the self, within the context of artistic expression. (Artist website)