Island

11 October – 8 December 2013

Ai Weiwei, John M Armleder, Sylvie Auvray, Tom Benson, Valentin Carron, Jake & Dinos Chapman, George Condo, Ann Craven, Thomas Demand, Fang Lijun, Urs Fischer, Théodore Fivel, Sylvie Fleury, FOS, Cyprien Gaillard, Gunjan Gupta, Anthea Hamilton, Thilo Heinzmann, Terence Koh, Sergej Jensen, Rashid Johnson, Per Kirkeby, Adriana Lara, Franck Leibovici & Diemo Schwarz, Ursula Mayer, Takashi Murakami, Order of the Third Bird, Jagannath Panda, Mai-Thu Perret, Sigmar Polke, Laure Prouvost, R.H. Quaytman, Ugo Rondinone, Sterling Ruby, Tomàs Saraceno, Julian Schnabel, Cindy Sherman, Dirk Skreber, Haim Steinbach, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Thukral and Tagra, Andro Wekua, Douglas White, Zeng Fanzhi.

Island (exhibition view), 2013, Dairy Art Centre, London Photo: Matthew Hollow

Dairy Art Centre is pleased to present Island, an exhibition bringing together the works of over forty established and emerging international contemporary artists curated by Sarina Basta. Based on the novel Island, written by Aldous Huxley in 1962, a utopian story and counterpart to Brave New World written by the same author some thirty years earlier, the exhibition is constructed to reflect the unfolding narrative as a reader would progress chapter by chapter.

Island (exhibition view), 2013, Dairy Art Centre, London Photo: Matthew Hollow

Inspired by some of the themes of the novel, the exhibition presents a selection of works from the collection of Dairy Art Centre founders Frank Cohen and Nicolai Frahm, whilst also including loans from the Americas, Asia and Europe, and a dozen new commissions and first-time releases.New commissions include Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury’s giant mushrooms, a clock work by John M Armleder, a new wall painting by U.S. artist Ann Craven, ambiguous material by the Order of the Third Bird, traces of evanescent wall mural by Tom Benson, new works by Ursula Mayer, and Franck Leibovici & Diemo Schwarz.

Island (exhibition view). Dairy Art Centre, London. Photo: Todd White Art Photography

Stepping into the exhibition the visitor is invited to retrace the steps of Bloomsbury-born Island protagonist Will Farnaby, observer, actor and catalyst, as imagined by the curator of the exhibition, or to simply meander among singular artistic proposals. Island celebrates the polyphonic and singular voices of the participating artists and their works, encouraging visitors to join in a shared experience of the here and now.