Giclee inkjet, full-strength carbon-black pigment on Velin BFK Rives 280gsm. Edition of 6. Signed, numbered and dated. 112.5 x 76.5 cm
IFPDA Print Fair New York
River Pavillion, Javits Center, 11 Avenue at 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
25 – 28 October 2018
RED SKY portraits of Sarah Lucas; photography and printing by Julian Simmons.
A set of 6 + 1, framed prints on Hahnemühle 100% cotton rag, matte surface, 308gsm; archival matte ink; AR museum glass.
Image size: 59 x 44″, framed size: 60 x 45 x 2.4″.
‘RED SKY (2018), a self-portrait smoking series that easily scoffs off any criticism and more importantly seems to laugh in the face of death. Whilst firmly rooted in the irreverent humour of Britain, DAME ZERO is able to securely locate itself within (as if emerging from) the context of Mexico. Embracing the hedonistic and self-destructive impulses that can be found in both British and Mexican society, it teases a bridge between the two cultures, made by our shared experiences of sex, illness, violence and death.’
Elliott Burns, thisistomorrow
‘DAME ZERO, where a woman is intuited, perhaps a self-portrait of the artist, which holds a skull in her crotch – an unquestionable death speech: life is a vice that is consumed. The resource is repeated, again, but in another medium; in this case, a series of self-portraits of the artist, which crown the exhibition, entitled RED SKY, in which Lucas poses in front of the camera, smoking compulsively: the lens portrays the movement of the artist, in denial of a precise recording; the shutter poetises the cigarette smoke that surrounds her, that makes her anonymous, a being that can not be stopped, defined, or dissected by analysis.’
Translated from the article ‘Un viaje al Mictlán con Sarah Lucas / A trip to the underworld with Sarah Lucas’, Javier Villaseñor V. CÓDIGO
SHOWING IN MEXICOREALIDAD | SARAH LUCAS Y AMIGOS EN MÉXICO a film by Julian Simmons
A month in Mexico with British artist Sarah Lucas
72 minutes
‘The documentary REALIDAD accompanies the exhibition DAME ZERO at kurimanzutto. The film shows the original journey made by the artist to Oaxaca in 2012, in the company of friends, for the making of her first exhibition in Mexico, NUDS in Anahuacalli.
REALIDAD is not an art documentary; in fact, there is not much ‘making of art’ implicit in the filming, since the documentary does not seek to interfere with the creative impetus of the artist. It is an intimate portrait, somewhat social, where the various ‘actors’ move between drunken states caused by the consumption of mezcal. The documentary is basically that : Sarah Lucas in mezcálicos trances.
Which leads me to the first question I asked myself : what do international artists see in Mexico that brings them back? – and I think it is this ritualisation, this capacity, that daily life has – to impregnate itself with a total spiritual essence — an influence also found in the pre-Hispanic cultures that gave form to the first Mexican ideologies and a consequence of baroque thought that eventually curdled into a national ideal that was responsible for making the Mexican world a dictionary of symbols – ready to be read.
The documentary, in conjunction with Lucas’s exhibition at kurimanzutto, made me think of the journey across Mexico of the British Malcolm Lowry in the first quarter of the last century — also driven by a self-destructive momentum, where he channeled transcendental experiences with the (excessive) consumption of mezcal; experiences that were aphorised and published in his novel ‘Under the Volcano’ of 1947.
There is, in the reading of Lucas (and of Lowry) about Mexico something of a voyage to an unfathomable depth, something of a transit to an unearthly world, a space of symbols and representations, where death occupies a primordial place in the reading of reality.
Imagine a journey to Mictlán [the Aztec underworld], mediated, seen from afar, an ordinary glimpse of what transcends our physical experience of the world, evidenced by our self-destructive impetus, our constant – and foolish – need to self-destruct’ …this is DAME ZERO and REALIDAD.
Translated from the article ‘A trip to the underworld with Sarah Lucas; DAME ZERO at kurimanzutto’
by Javier Villaseñor V. in CÓDIGO
Stand B2
Paul Stolper Gallery is proud to present works by Damien Hirst, Don Brown, Julian Simmons*, Mit Senoj, Peter Blake and Pablo Genovés
*HOOLIAN sculpture by Sarah Lucas, photographed and printed by Julian Simmons, limited edition of 6
*SQUAB SQUAW, portrait of Sarah Lucas with pigeon by Julian Simmons, special order print
Faliro Pavilion – Tae Kwon Do Hall, Poseidonos Avenue
Palaio Faliro, 17564 Athens, Greece
For artwork enquiries, please contact rachel@paulstolper.com
Featured by ARTSY: A Journey to Mexico with Sarah Lucas, Through the Eyes of Collaborator and Partner Julian Simmons.
‘…we asked the photographer to share insights around the images, the trip to Mexico, and his multivalent relationship with Lucas’…
The unedited Q&A here…
Until 7 February 2015: Julian Simmons at Paul Stolper, 31 Museum Street, London WC1A 1LH.
‘Sarah Lucas describes her partner and frequent collaborator Julian Simmons as “a Star-man with a pair of binoculars”, but this show also confirms that he is a highly skilled print-maker and significant artist in his own right.
For while the evident subject of these arresting and exquisitely produced prints is a series of Lucas’s soft, fleshy “Nud” sculptures made for a 2012 exhibition at the Museo Diego Rivera Anahuacalli in Mexico City, they also go way beyond mere depiction to take on an independent existence as autonomous works of art.
Like all good portraits, they animate and bring new insight to their sitters; and so powerful is their physical presence that you can’t help wondering what they all get up to once the gallery is shut up for the night.’ Louisa Buck, THE ART NEWSPAPER: The Buck stopped here—this week’s must see shows.
TITTIPUSSIDAD prints of texts, portraits and Sarah Lucas sculptures. Photographs and printing by Julian Simmons. Each in an edition of 6. Giclee inkjet, archival full-strength carbon-black pigment.
15 framed prints, on Velin BFK Rives fine-art printmaking paper, mould-made, 100% cotton rag, no optical brighteners, 280gsm, signed and numbered on verso. Sheet size: 112.5 x 76.5 cm, framed size: 119 x 83 cm.
SHEELA-NA-GIG II 1
OAXACA NUD 1
OAXACA NUD 2
OAXACA NUD 3
DAD LIST
TITTIPUSSIDAD TREE
LUPE
XOCHIPILLI
SARAH SMOKING
STARMEN (ARMATURE)
STARMAN SEE THROUGH THEIR NIPPLES
PRINCE OF FLOWERS
REALIDAD 2
HOOLIAN
REALIDAD 1
+ large-scale wallpaper print, on 6 vertical strips of 55cm wide roll-paper, for direct pasting onto a wall, or framed backed with canvas;
total size: 231 x 326 cm.
SHEELA-NA-GIG II
Exhibition:
16 January – 7 February 2015, Paul Stolper, 31 Museum Street, London WC1A 1LH / press release
4 – 7 December 2014, Art Basel – Miami Beach. Paul Stolper, Stand B22.
26 – 29 May 2016, Art-Athina 2016, Greece. Paul Stolper, Stand B2.
‘I’m in your show now, standing before your work and it looks AWESOME! ..and, yes, that is undoubtedly how Star-Men see!
Amazing quality printing, unbelievable. Lovely work, keep going ! Avanti !’, Gregor Muir, Executive Director of the ICA.
“They’re very desirable and sexy”, Norman Rosenthal
“…so just like your good self !”, Hoolian Simmons
“…and you – you’re desirable and sexy aren’t you?…”, Norman Rosenthal
“…I’d say !”, Sarah Lucas.
Exhibition: 16 January – 7 February 2015, Paul Stolper, 31 Museum Street, London WC1A 1LH.
15 prints each in an edition of 6, signed and numbered on verso. Sheet size: 112.5 x 76.5 cm. Giclee inkjet, archival full-strength carbon-black pigment on Velin BFK Rives, traditional fine-art printmaking paper, mould-made, uncoated, buffered, no optical brighteners, 100% cotton rag, 280gsm. Photographs and printing by Julian Simmons.
“The thing about Julian is that he sees things in greater detail than anyone else I know. Good for us that he’s also on a mission to show us how he does see it. How to see. For me especially, as we’re working so closely together. These pictures are from our project in Mexico, TITTIPUSSIDAD. The muse of HOOLIAN is Julian. He’s a Star-man with a pair of binoculars.” - Sarah Lucas
Paul Stolper is proud to present the HOOLIAN series of prints by Julian Simmons, each in an edition of 6, together with a large wallpaper piece. All of the prints are illustrated in TITTIPUSSIDAD, the book designed by Simmons which documents his and Lucas’ seminal trip to Mexico in 2012, and which culminated in her exhibition at the Museo Diego Rivera Anahuacalli.
Beautiful in their own right, Simmons’ prints are also rich ‘portraits’ of Lucas’ sculptures, charting their genesis to the finished work, and as such act as the photographic counterpoint to Lucas’ practice. Following in the tradition of Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith, the prints inform the sculpture as much as the sculptures inform the prints.
For artwork enquiries and to RSVP to the private view, please contact alexandra@paulstolper.com
Check the gallery install photos…
4 – 7 December 2014, Miami Beach. Paul Stolper Gallery, Stand B22.
Four TITTIPUSSIDAD prints on Velin BFK Rives, a traditional fine-art printmaking paper, mould-made, 100% cotton rag, 280gsm. Giclee inkjet, archival full-strength carbon-black pigment.
Sheet size: 112.5 x 76.5 cm.
Photographs & printing by Julian Simmons. Edition of 6, signed and numbered on verso.
LUPE
SARAH SMOKING
OBSIDIAN
OAXACA NUD (1)
‘Wall-filling black-and-white photos of archaic masks and commercial toilets, densely covered with layers of cigarettes.
The photographs and sculptures are in fact not an exhibition, but the protagonist from a encyclopaedic giant book with the very fresh title “Tittipussidad”, which describes the journey through Mexico a year ago – published and designed by Julian Simmons.
A travel diary with recordings of spontaneous thoughts that accompanied the way from arrival, to the Anahuacalli exhibition. A book like a theme of life.’ Gesine Borcherdt, from DIE WELT.
CONTEMPORARY FINE ARTS GALERIE GMBH, Am Kupfergraben 10, 10117 Berlin.
13 June – 31 July 2014, opening 12 June 2014 / invite card
New series of 12 limited-edition prints by Julian Simmons from the book TITTIPUSSIDAD, 252 x 161 cm (vertical images), 231 x 330 cm (horizontal images), 520 x 110 cm (the ‘DAD’ list).
REALIDAD p.110-111
REALIDAD p.121
REALIDAD p.120
SHEELA-NA-GIG-I p.307
SHEELA-NA-GIG-II p.191
SHEELA-NA-GIG-II p.4-5
BRICK FACTORY p.58-59
CIGARETTE CHRIST p.433
BENITO p.517
DAD-LIST p.13
COMMUNISTA p.225
OBSIDIAN p.201
Edition of 6. Printed by myself on off-white heavyweight paper, dead-matt finish, with full-strength carbon-black pigment. Supplied as rolled wallpaper in multiple vertical strips for direct pasting onto a wall, or framed backed with canvas.
Limited-edition of 17 | 124 x 84 cm | Signed & numbered | Framed c-type colour photographic print
EXCUSADO REVISITADO, (‘Toilet Revisited’), portrait of Sarah Lucas, photograph by Julian Simmons, Mexico, 2014.
Photographed in Oaxaca, while Sarah Lucas was making new works to be shown in Anahuacalli, Museo Diego Rivera, Mexico City (publication TITTIPUSSIDAD).
Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin
13 June – 31 July 2014, CONTEMPORARY FINE ARTS GALERIE GMBH, Am Kupfergraben 10, 10117 Berlin.
TITTIPUSSIDAD – Mexico Book, main source in Germany, get your copy here.
TITTIPUSSIDAD – Mexico Wallpaper Prints / installation photos, large-scale limited-edition b&w prints from TITTIPUSSIDAD, sizes to 2.3 x 3.2 metres.
EXCUSADO REVISITADO – Portrait of Sarah Lucas knickers down, Oaxaca, Mexico, from the book p.384; framed limited-edition colour photographic print.
NEW SCULPTURES – ‘The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly’, and ‘Diego’, by Sarah Lucas, 2014.
REALIDAD – Mexico Film, Sarah Lucas y amigo en México.
“I got to know these people – Diego Riviera, Alejandro Jodorowsky – I got so clear with them by being there, as well as some of the old Gods. It was a brilliant trip, how do you do that again? I don’t know. But things as good as that? Yes please.
It can be fantastic, when the circumstances are very inspiring, which is what Oaxaca in Mexico is. I didn’t run into any problems, it just sort of went – it had the wind behind it, or a volcano. We made a book from our experience, a storybook with pictures about the time we spent there. It’s not like a catalogue or anything – it’s an artwork in itself”, Sarah Lucas.
Read the full interview in AnOther Magazine.
Why TITTIPUSSIDAD is this Season’s Mother Lode of Art Books‘Arriving just after an earthquake had shaken the Zapotec region of south-western Mexico, rekindling the local volcano, Simmons said, “..this place was one hell of a hub of weird energy, intention ..it rubbed off, conducted, got in the veins, as did the chilli ..and the grasshoppers”
“Objects surviving from ancient times have lost much of their sense, but none of their power. What is this power?” asks Lucas in TITTIPUSSIDAD, which is itself a work that defies sense with power.’
Read the full review in 032c issue #26 Summer 2014
15 May – 21 June 2014, part of the Darren Bader exhibition Photographs I Like / To Have and to Hold
ANDREW KREPS GALLERY, 537 W. 22nd St. New York, NY 10011
Order enquiries: USA Andrew Kreps Gallery, UK / Europe Sadie Coles HQ
Part of the exposition of Sarah Lucas Furniture, Sadie Coles HQ, Via San Gregorio 43 / Via Casati 32, Milan. 8 – 12th April 2014.
Limited number of TITTIPUSSIDADs and noBs in Italy.
Series of 12 photographs by Julian Simmons from the book TITTIPUSSIDAD, each approx 240 x 160 cm.
Printed by myself on off-white heavyweight paper, dead-matt finish, with full-strength carbon-black pigment. Supplied as rolled wallpaper in 3 vertical strips for direct pasting onto a wall, or mounted for hanging.
BOOK-SIGNING Wednesday 5th March 2014 – New York book & print launch at KARMA, 39 Great Jones Street, New York, NY 10012
Limited number of signed TITTIPUSSIDADS – get your copy here, main source in the USA.
RUNNING FOR 2 WEEKS from 5th March at KARMA, installation of 12 large-scale black-&-white Wallpaper Prints from the book + evening projection of the Oaxaca adobe block-making film
TITTIPUSSIDAD Sarah Lucas in Mexico | A book by Julian Simmons | Published by Sadie Coles HQ | Hardback | 648 pages | 705 photographs
Book info: TITTIPUSSIDAD
Wallpaper info: 12 TITTIPUSSIDAD PRINTS
Order enquiries: USA KARMA, UK Sadie Coles
Sarah Lucas’s Feet, 165 x 133 cm.
From the book TITTIPUSSIDAD p.208, off-white heavyweight paper, dead-matt finish, full-strength carbon-black pigment.
Each image photographed and printed by myself. Supplied as rolled wallpaper in 3 vertical strips for direct pasting onto a wall, or mounted for hanging.