Chris Drury (artist)

Last updated

Chris Drury
Chris Drury Cloud Chamber.jpg
Cloud Chamber
Born1948 (age 7576)
Education Camberwell School of Art [1]
Known forSculpture, installation, land art
Notable workMushroom Cloud, 2010
Awards
Elected Royal British Society of Sculptors
Website chrisdrury.co.uk

Chris Drury (born 1948) is a British environmental artist. His body of work includes ephemeral assemblies of natural materials, land art in the mode associated with Andy Goldsworthy, as well as more permanent landscape art, works on paper and indoor installations. He also works in 3D (three-dimensional) sculpture.

Contents

Biography

Mushroom Cloud by Chris Drury Mushroom cloud1.jpg
Mushroom Cloud by Chris Drury

Drury was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1948, his family moving to the UK when he was 6 years old. From 1966, he attended Camberwell College of Arts (at the time known as Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts), studying art and sculpture, where he was taught drawing by artists such as Euan Uglow. [2]

After being introduced to him by his dentist, [3] in October 1975 he was invited to accompany walking artist Hamish Fulton on a journey through the Canadian Rockies which he describes as seminal in his transition from traditional sculpture and portraiture to environmental or land art. [4]

Initially frustrated by comparisons of his work to leading land artists such as Fulton and Richard Long, his work continued to develop and in 1982 he made what he describes as a "radical departure" and spent a year creating Medicine Wheel in which he explored seasonal change and displayed objects from nature over the course of a year in the form of a large circle. Medicine Wheel was displayed through Coracle, a small independent gallery with whom Drury continued to work intermittently for a number of years, and was eventually given to Leeds City Art Gallery. [3] Drury has largely continued to eschew traditional larger galleries, preferring to distance himself from commercial expectation and production which has allowed him a freedom to work in remote areas and in natural surroundings and to make art in a wide range of unusual collaborations. [2]

Artworks

In addition to ephemeral works, some of Drury's lasting pieces include "cloud chambers", darkened caverns constructed of local rock, turf, or other materials. Each chamber has a hole in the roof which serves as a pinhole camera; viewers may enter the chamber and observe the image of the sky and clouds projected onto the walls and floor. He has made several around the world, with his latest, Horizon Line Chamber, constructed with master craftsman Andrew Mason, opening in 2019 at Morecambe Bay as part of the Headspace to Headlands Heritage Lottery Commission. [5]

From December 2006 to February 2007, he was artist in residence with the British Antarctic Survey where his work included creating ephemeral pieces with the materials of nature, including Wind Vortices, ice prints and ice igloos which he also photographed. [6]

His works in 3D sculpture include mushroom clouds evoking nuclear testing made out of as many as 6000 pieces of fungi strung floor to ceiling. These were first exhibited at his first major solo exhibition in the US, Mushrooms | Clouds, at Nevada Museum of Art in 2008. [7]

On paper, he uses a variety of unusual media, notably mushroom spore prints, dung, and peat, as a source of colour and patterns, which he might overlay with text or fingerprints, or underlay with maps or other geographic images.

Drury has also produced works associated with the body, working in residence with hospitals and incorporating echocardiogram data and blood into his art. [2]

Drury is an active participant in several organisations which aim to address the effects of and challenge thinking about climate change through art, including Cape Farewell, UK, [8] ONCA [9] (a Brighton based charity which "supports artists and audiences to engage with environmental and social challenges" and Art Works for Change, which creates exhibitions worldwide to advocate for human rights, social justice and to highlight environmental awareness. [10]

Carbon Sink at the University of Wyoming

In 2011, Drury's outdoor artwork titled Carbon Sink created controversy when it was installed at the University of Wyoming and was ultimately censored. [11] The sculpture was constructed of coal and burned wood and was intended to highlight the link between climate change and environmental issues in Wyoming, and the specific issue of Wyoming forests extensive infestation with pine beetle.

Complaints were received by the president of the university, Tom Buchanan, from members of the public, mining executives, Republican lobbyists and other representatives of energy industries who were aggrieved that the university displayed the sculpture whilst receiving considerable funds from state taxes. [12] Tom Lubnau, Republican speaker of the Wyoming House of Representatives, stated he would attempt to ensure "no fossil-fuel-derived tax dollars find their way in the University of Wyoming funding stream". [13] The sculpture was removed on Buchanan's recommendation, with the initial reason given as water damage, which the later release of Buchanan's emails contradicted. Subsequently, legislation was passed that means any proposed artwork at the university must "reflect Wyoming's history of transportation, agriculture and minerals" and be approved by the Wyoming Energy Resources Council, made up of local energy executives, and by Republican governor of Wyoming, Matt Mead. [13] The university was criticised for backing down in the face of commercial pressure, with one professor describing the artwork's removal as an "explicit and abhorrent act of censorship". [12]

Publications

Exhibitions

The Hut of the Shadows, Lochmaddy. The Hut of the Shadows, Lochmaddy.jpg
The Hut of the Shadows, Lochmaddy.

Awards

In 2018, Drury was awarded the Lee Krasner Lifetime Achievement Award by the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jackson Pollock</span> American painter (1912–1956)

Paul Jackson Pollock was an American painter. A major figure in the abstract expressionist movement, Pollock was widely noticed for his "drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a horizontal surface, enabling him to view and paint his canvases from all angles. It was called all-over painting and action painting, since he covered the entire canvas and used the force of his whole body to paint, often in a frenetic dancing style. This extreme form of abstraction divided the critics: some praised the immediacy of the creation, while others derided the random effects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Land art</span> Art movement of the 1960s and 1970s

Land art, variously known as Earth art, environmental art, and Earthworks, is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s, largely associated with Great Britain and the United States but that also includes examples from many countries. As a trend, "land art" expanded boundaries of art by the materials used and the siting of the works. The materials used were often the materials of the Earth, including the soil, rocks, vegetation, and water found on-site, and the sites of the works were often distant from population centers. Though sometimes fairly inaccessible, photo documentation was commonly brought back to the urban art gallery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antony Gormley</span> British sculptor (born 1950)

Sir Antony Mark David Gormley is a British sculptor. His works include the Angel of the North, a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; Another Place on Crosby Beach near Liverpool; and Event Horizon, a multipart site installation which premiered in London in 2007, then subsequently in Madison Square in New York City (2010), São Paulo, Brazil (2012), and Hong Kong (2015–16).

Paul Jenkins was an American abstract expressionist painter.

<i>Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky</i>

Cloud Chamber for the Trees and Sky is a site specific outdoor artwork by Chris Drury. It was commissioned by North Carolina Museum of Art in 2003 made possible by the Robert F. Phifer Bequest and located in the 146 acre museum park adjacent to the museum known as the Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park at state capital Raleigh. The artwork is situated in woodland with other large sculptures and is accessed along a woodland path.

Cape Farewell is an artist led organisation that works to create an urgent cultural response to climate change. Launched by David Buckland in 2001 with a series of ground-breaking artist and scientist manned expeditions to the Arctic, Cape Farewell has become an international not-for-profit programme based at the University of the Arts London: Chelsea.

Richard Humann is a New York City-based American neo-conceptual artist. His art delves deep into concept and ideas, and he uses a multitude of materials to create his installations, sculptures, videos, and sound projects. Richard Humann's influences are as broad ranging as from Donald Judd, and Nam June Paik, to Jonathan Borofsky. His artwork bears conceptual similarities and to that of Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, Lawrence Weiner, Edward Ruscha, and Robert Morris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">List Visual Arts Center</span>

Established in 1950, the List Visual Arts Center (LVAC) is the contemporary art museum of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It is known for temporary exhibitions in its galleries located in the MIT Media Lab building, as well as its administration of the permanent art collection distributed throughout the university campus, faculty offices, and student housing.

Squeak Carnwath is an American contemporary painter and arts educator. She is a professor emerita of art at the University of California, Berkeley. She has a studio in Oakland, California, where she has lived and worked since 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tanya Preminger</span>

Tanya Preminger, is an artist working in various media: environmental art, site-specific art, ephemeral art, sculpture, installation and photography. She is mostly known for her land art projects and large-scale stone sculptures.

Strijdom van der Merwe is a South African land artist who uses materials he finds on site to create his artworks. His materials include sand, water, wood, rocks and stone. By shaping these elements into geometric forms he juxtaposes the contrast between artwork and environment, growth and destruction. Van Der Merwe's works are often very 'free' in the sense that he is able to respond to nature, but within the context of ' nature having a bigger impact on you, than you on nature'. A site, and the materials it offers, will reveal itself to you as the artist as you walk – be it in a forest, or along a beach, or in the Karoo. Only then will ideas and working methods start developing. It's a process of working with the natural material you find on site. Nothing is planned ahead – it's all improvised as you go along.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Ross (artist)</span> American sculptor (born 1937)

Charles Ross is an American contemporary artist known for work centered on natural light, time and planetary motion. His practice spans several art modalities and includes large-scale prism and solar spectrum installations, "solar burns" created by focusing sunlight through lenses, paintings made with dynamite and powdered pigment, and Star Axis, an earthwork built to observe the stars. Ross emerged in the mid-1960s at the advent of minimalism, and is considered a forerunner of "prism art"—a sub-tradition within that movement—as well as one of the major figures of land art. His work employs geometry, seriality, refined forms and surfaces, and scientific concepts in order to reveal optical, astronomical and perceptual phenomena. Artforum critic Dan Beachy-Quick wrote that "math as a manifestation of fundamental cosmic laws—elegance, order, beauty—is a principle undergirding Ross’s work … [he] becomes a maker-medium of a kind, constructing various methods for sun and star to create the art itself."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miya Ando</span> Contemporary American artist

Miya Ando is an American visual artist recognized for her paintings, sculptures, and installation artworks that address concepts of temporality, interdependence, and impermanence. Ando's artworks have been exhibited in museums, galleries, and public spaces worldwide.

James Parsons Dalglish is an American abstract painter. He lives and works in New York City.

Gail Wight is an American new media artist and professor, whose work fuses art with biology, neurology, and technology. Popular media Wight uses to create art include, drawing and painting, electronic sculpture, interactive sculpture, video and living mediums. Since 2003, Wight has taught at Stanford University in the Department of Art.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maureen Lander</span> New Zealand weaver, multimedia installation artist and academic

Maureen Robin Lander is a New Zealand weaver, multimedia installation artist and academic. Lander is of Ngāpuhi and Pākehā descent and is a well-respected and significant artist who since 1986 has exhibited, photographed, written and taught Māori art. She continues to produce and exhibit work as well as attend residencies and symposia both nationally and internationally.

Zarouhie Abdalian is an American artist of Armenian descent, known for site-specific sculptures and installations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lindy Lee</span> Australian artist

Lindy Lee is an Australian painter and sculptor of Chinese heritage, whose work blends the cultures of Australia and her ancestral China and explores her Buddhist faith. She has exhibited widely, and is particularly known for her large works of public art, such as several iterations of The Life of Stars at various locations in China and on the forecourt of the Art Gallery of South Australia, and The Garden of Cloud and Stone in Sydney's Chinatown district.

Tarnanthi is a Festival of Contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art held in Adelaide, South Australia, annually. Presented by the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA) in association with the South Australian Government and BHP. It is curated by Nici Cumpston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juliana Cerqueira Leite</span> Brazilian sculptor based in New York (born 1981)

Juliana Cerqueira Leite is a Brazilian sculptor based in New York, known for creating large-scale works that explores the physical presence of the human body. She is considered to push the boundaries of sculpture.

References

  1. "Artist Highlight: Christopher Drury". The Earth Issue. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  2. 1 2 3 Conway Morris, Roderick (24 February 2011). "Where Humankind and Nature Converge". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  3. 1 2 "Chris Drury: Working Outside the System". Elephant. 14 July 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  4. "Chris Drury, artist". Axis. Retrieved 22 January 2019.
  5. "Horizon Line Chamber". Morecambe Bay Partnership. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  6. Lowenstein, Oliver. "Ice in the Whirlwind: Chris Drury's Desert Journey from Antarctica to Nevada". Sculpture.org. International Sculpture Center. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  7. 1 2 "Chris Drury: Mushrooms / Clouds". Nevada Museum of Art. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  8. "Exchange, Artists' book by Chris Drury and Kay Syrad". Cape Farewell. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  9. "Honorary Patrons: Chris Drury". ONCA. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  10. "Chris Drury". Art Works for Change. Retrieved 17 January 2019.
  11. Rustin, Susanna (8 October 2014). "Tate and oil: does the art world need to come clean about sponsorship?". Guardian. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  12. 1 2 McKim, Cooper (12 May 2017). "How The Energy Industry Intersects With Free Speech". Wyoming Public Media. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  13. 1 2 Frosch, Dan (27 October 2012). "Art That Irked Energy Executives Is Gone, but Wyoming Dispute Whirls On". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 January 2019.
  14. Selvin, Claire (10 October 2018). "Pollock-Krasner Foundation Names 2017–18 Grantees, Gives $100,000 to Madison Square Park Conservancy". ARTnews. Retrieved 6 April 2019.

Further reading