Artist wins major commission at The Lowry
North West-based artist Leo Fitzmaurice has won the latest £20,000 Transformations commission to create site-specific artwork for The Lowry’s unique Promenade Gallery, which will be shown from April 2010.
Fitzmaurice often works with posters, flyers and commercial packaging making subtly intelligent, witty interventions and edits.
The best thing for Fitzmaurice in Argos is the catalogue which he has transformed in previous work into a dark star titled “Craterform”. In other works he has created villages of Modernist cardboard houses from rows of commercial packaging with each printed word taken away. In Liverpool one of his “Detourist” interventions used plastic carrier bags to create a ‘litter’ of bunny bags which were placed on steps in the city.
Fitzmaurice has, for the last few years, been based in Liverpool where he has worked on projects such as Further Up In the Air. Most recently he has worked with Locus Plus on a project for the Durham Literary Festival 2009 where he made tiny replica football shirts from cigarette packets sourced from around the world. He has also had solo projects at Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield, A Foundation in Liverpool, the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Deptford X and MOT International in London. His work has been featured in group exhibitions in Zurich, London, Germany, New York and Shanghai.
Fitzmaurice commented,
“I am excited by the opportunity of developing new work in relation to the unique architectural setting of the Lowry. The key for me is that the existing architecture should form the work in some way, and also be part of it.”
The Transformations commission aims to create site-specific work for The Lowry’s Promenade Gallery and it presents a rare opportunity for artists to experiment and test new approaches to their practice. The Transformation commissions have been funded over three years by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
Kate Farrell, Curator of Special Exhibitions at The Lowry, explained,
“We are delighted to have such a talented and thoughtful artist on board for the third and final Transformations commission, and we know Leo will truly transform the Promenade Gallery with the very nature of his work. Leo clearly considered the unique architecture of the gallery within his proposal in an exceptionally creative way which made it an easy and very exciting choice for the selection panel.”
Fitzmaurice was selected by a panel included Clare Lilley, Senior Curator at Yorkshire Sculpture Park; artist Hew Locke and Sarah Staton, winner of Transformations 2.
Posted on Monday, 19 October 2009 under Press Galleries Press