V-A-C Collection by Mike Nelson

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2014

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Whitechapel Gallery presents an exhibition of works from the V-A-C Collection, selected by the renowned British artist Mike Nelson, opening on 9 September 2014.

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Mike Nelson (b. 1967) is a contemporary artist best known for his immersive, multi-layered installations. For this exhibition at Whitechapel Gallery, Nelson proposes a return of works by some of the greatest sculptors of the twentieth century to a setting suggestive of an artist’s studio, naturally lit through the gallery’s skylights.

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Nelson has selected historic and contemporary figurative works by Pawel Althamer, Louise Bourgeois, Constantin Brâncuși, Alberto Giacometti, Sherrie Levine, Henry Moore, Willem de Kooning and Anatoly Osmolovsky. The works are installed on a reclaimed wooden floor that fills the gallery space, leaving a one-metre-wide walkway around the perimeter. Rather than being placed on plinths or pedestals, the sculptures are presented as a dense grouping of modelled figures on a shared surface.

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Inspired by Dieter Roth’s The Floor (Studio-floor from Mosfellsbaer, Iceland) (1973–1992), Nelson describes the installation as a ‘levelling of sorts’, questioning established ways of looking at objects.

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The collection is owned by the V-A-C Foundation, a non-profit private institution founded in Moscow in 2009. This presentation forms part of Whitechapel Gallery’s ongoing programme dedicated to opening significant public and private collections to a wider audience.

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