KNOKKE.- Jablonka Maruani Mercier Gallery presents a comprehensive selection of Gavin Turk's body of work at its Knokke gallery.

Gavin Turk (b.1967) is a British born, international artist. He has pioneered many forms of contemporary British sculpture now taken for granted, including the painted bronze, the waxwork, the recycled art-historical icon and the use of rubbish in art.

Turk’s installations and sculptures deal with issues of authorship, authenticity and identity. Concerned with the ‘myth’ of the artist and the ‘authorship’ of a work, Turk’s engagement with this modernist, avant-garde debate stretches back to the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp.

The exhibition includes iconic and new series:

• Holy Eggs, in reference to Lucio Fontana’s Serie « Fine Di Dio ».
• An Andy Warhol inspired serie.
• An ensemble of « Found Objects », including the famous American Bag.

Complementing the exhibition, Gavin Turk reproduced Lucio Fontana's iconic piercing technique in public, as the italian artist did in 1962 piercing a Jef Verheyen painting.

"If objects gain symbolic powers, can the object be represented and put back in front of the audience in such a way that the process of acquiring value and meaning may be exposed? This is not to nullify meaning or symbolic power but to try to wrestle it free from the cliché of ‘established thought'." Gavin Turk

In 1991, the Royal College of Art refused Turk a degree on the basis that his final show, ‘Cave’, consisted of a whitewashed studio space containing only a blue heritage plaque commemorating his presence: ‘Gavin Turk worked here 1989-91’. Instantly gaining notoriety through this installation, Turk was spotted by Charles Saatchi and has since been exhibited by many major galleries and museums throughout the world.

Turk has recently been commissioned to make several public sculptures including Nail, a 12meter sculpture at One New Change, next to St Paul’s cathedral, London, England. In 2013 Prestel published Turk’s first major monograph, showcasing more than two decades of his work and in 2014 Trolley Books published ‘This Is Not A Book About Gavin Turk’ which playfully explores themes associated with the artist’s work via thirty notable contributors.