Press release

Michael Craig-Martin - Climate Change
January 21 - September 3 2006

INTERVIEW of MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN

Le MAGASIN invites Michael Craig-Martin to create a monumental ephemeral work in the central space called ‘la Rue’ (the Street), with its surface of over 900 m2 under its glass roof, and approximately 150 linear meters of wall space. His project is a mural painting of 770 m2 printed on vinyl ‘wall paper’ applied to the walls, created from Craig-Martin’s digital drawings. About 60 giant, flattened and simplified objects from everyday life, each one unique, are drawn on a background of bright, gradated color. The selection of these objects, their color, their spatial relationships, and their juxtaposition are what provide the tension and narrative within the work.

Michael Craig-Martin is widely considered an important figure in conceptual art, working especially in the media of drawing and painting. His work has been concerned with fundamental questions about the nature of art, about representation, authorship, and the role of the viewer, explored primarily through commonplace objects both real and as images. Large installations dominate much of his most recent work.

Michael Craig-Martin was born in Dublin in 1941, raised in the United States and educated at Yale University. He moved to London in 1966, where he continues to live and work, having his first solo exhibition there in 1969. His prestigious teaching career at London’s Goldsmith’s College began in 1974  and his students have included Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst, Julian Opie, Gary Hume, Sarah Lucas, Fiona Rae, and Liam Gillick, to name some of the most influential British artists today.

His most recent solo exhibitions include :
ARP-CRAIG-MARTIN-ARP 11 reliefs/11 paintings/11 sculptures, Arp Museum, Remagen, Germany, 2004 ; Michael Craig-Martin: Surfacing, Milton Keynes Art Gallery, England, 2004 ; Eye of the Storm, Gagosian Gallery, New York, 2003 ; Living, Sintra Museum of Modern Art, Berardo Collection, Portugal, 2001 ; Michael Craig-Martin: And sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, Wurttembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart (site specific installation), 1999

This project is supported by the British Council.