Marc Quinn at RHS Chelsea Flower Show
2013-05-16
For the first time in the RHS Chelsea Flower Show's 100 year history the RHS has collaborated with an artist to create an installation - titled The Rush of Nature - which will be auctioned in association with Sotheby's to help raise £1M for the next generation of horticulturists. The work will be unveiled at the Chelsea Flower Show on Monday 20 May 2013 at 10am. Marc Quinn has created the installation to celebrate the garden as an artistic medium. With flowers and plant life featuring so prominently in his art, the RHS is delighted to be working with Marc on its first artistic collaboration.

The installation will be kept under wraps until the Show opens and will then be auctioned in association with Sotheby's as part of the RHS Chelsea Centenary Appeal. The Appeal will help the RHS bring horticulture to a young audience and promote horticulture as a career. The fundraising will enable the creation of a new RHS apprenticeship scheme, the creation of a Learning Centre at RHS Garden Hyde Hall in Essex and further investment in the RHS Campaign for School Gardening.

Speaking about the collaboration, RHS Director General, Sue Biggs, says: "Marc Quinn is one of the most exciting and celebrated contemporary artists today. We are honoured he has created this amazing piece of artwork for us to help the future of horticulture.

Marc's artwork will be the iconic image for this year"s Centenary RHS Chelsea Flower Show. Funds raised from it will go towards enabling young people to embrace a career in horticulture."

Marc Quinn said: "The Chelsea Flower Show has provided flowers and inspiration for my work for many years. To create a garden there is something of a dream come true for me. Especially as it will help such an important cause: our relationship to plants and nature is one of the most important things in all of our lives."

Oliver Barker, Senior International Specialist, Sotheby's Contemporary Art Department, said: "Marc Quinn has created some of the most celebrated works in recent British art, and many of them refer to the forms of flowers and the natural world, so it could not be more appropriate that the work now being sold to benefit the RHS should be by him. We are absolutely delighted to be working with such a great artist to help support the RHS in all its important work."

The installation will be sold in association with Sotheby's in a silent auction via the RHS website over the course of the week of the Show. Bids can be placed in person at the installation or online at www.rhs.org.uk/marcquinn.

The RHS Chelsea Centenary Appeal funds will help the RHS create a Learning Centre at RHS Garden Hyde Hall to enable schools across London, Essex and the South East to experience learning in an inspiring environment using the resources and learning opportunities for free. Learning Centres at RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey, RHS Garden Rosemoor, Devon and RHS Garden Harlow Carr, North Yorkshire, host more than 40,000 children on school visits a year. The charity is also creating 15 apprenticeships in the next three years.

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, sponsored by M&G Investments, is celebrating its centenary year. Running from Tuesday 21 to Saturday 25 May the show offers visitors 15 Show Gardens, 11 Fresh Gardens - the best of contemporary garden design - and eight Artisan Gardens. In addition, 150 exhibits from nurseries and florists in the Great Pavilion and up to 250 tradestands means the Centenary RHS Chelsea Flower Show will be one not to miss.

Marc Quinn at RHS Chelsea Flower Show
Royal Hospital
Chelsea
London
SW3 4SL

May 21-24 2013: 8am - 8pm
May 25: 8am - 5:30pm (sell off 4pm)

Related project: Chelsea Flower Show 2013

All the Time in the World, Solo Exhibition, 04 May - 29 June 2013, Mary Boone Gallery.
2013-05-08
All the Time in the World presents four new large-scale bronze sculptures and one oil-on-canvas work. Part of the artist's 'The Archaeology of Art' series, the sculptures take the form of finely detailed seashells that highlight the beautiful, symmetrical and yet perfectly natural forms which, almost implausibly, are made by forces of nature at the bottom of the sea. Quinn says: "To me, looking at these natural forms is like looking at the archaeology of art. Even though these creatures have no self awareness, they create what we see as amazingly beautiful things, which is what makes the collaboration so interesting. I feel like I'm working alongside a creature from the beginning of time, and the beginning of art, and that therefore, somehow, these shells are about time travel. To me they are actually sculptures of the space-time continuum. By that I mean you have the rings on the outside of the shell, which look and act like the rings of a tree - showing the past of the object - and at the same time, the rings are to me like a map of the turning of the world. Then, on the front surface, you have the highly polished, reflective part, which is of course always in the present moment. This surface is always reflecting the now, and so together the form of the shell is like a found structural diagram of how the present becomes the past."

Related project: All the Time in the World

'Planet' now on permanent display at the Gardens by the Bay, Singapore
2013-01-18
Marc Quinn's monumental 2008 sculpture Planet, depicting his 7 month-old son sleeping and implausibly hovering above the ground, has today been unveiled as a permanent feature of the city-state's Gardens by the Bay. The work has been generously donated for the public to enjoy and becomes part of the Gardens’ ambition to tell the story of the interrelationship between plants, people and the planet.

Related project: 'Planet' at the Gardens by the Bay, Singapore

The Origin of the World (Cassis Madagascariensis) Indian Ocean, 310
2012-11-05
Outdoor Project at The Jardin des Tuileries, Paris. Gallerie Thaddaeus Ropac presents "The Origin of the World (Cassis Madagascariensis) Indian Ocean, 310" as part of FIAC 2012. From October 24, 2012

Related project: FIAC 2012

'The Big Wheel Keeps on Turning', Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.
2012-11-05
26th of October - 16th of December. The exhibition in Moscow is now open. This is Marc’s first exhibition in Russia and the presentation will include recent paintings and sculptures that explore the themes inherent to the artist’s practice.

Related project: Big Wheel Keeps on Turning

Marc Quinn Sculpture a highlight at the London Paralymic Opening Ceremony
2012-08-30
A replica of the iconic sculpture 'Alison Lapper Pregnant' took centre stage at the London 2012 Paralympic opening ceremony.

Related project: The Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony 2012

'Burning Desire' now installed at Place du Casino, Monaco
2012-07-05
The 3.93meter high, bright red, bronze sculpture is the last piece to arrive in Monaco to complete 'The Littoral Zone' exhibition. Not to be missed in Monaco's most iconic places, The Boulingrins gardens in front of the casino.

Related project: The Littoral Zone

'The Littoral Zone' A major exhibition of works by Marc Quinn at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco
2012-06-07
12th of May - 15th October 2012. "The Littoral Zone" exhibition includes sculptures, paintings and installations by the artist which will be shown throughout the museum, alongside its collection of marine specimens and underwater fauna, setting up a fascinating dialogue between art and science.

Over 60 works by Marc Quinn will be shown both inside and outside the museum including new works such as the The Origin of the World(Cassis madagascariensis) Indian Ocean, 310, a huge 3 meter bronze shell, new underwater paintings from the series The Zone and the unveiling of the latest version of Marc Quinn's Self scultpures, Self 2011. Other pieces in the show include Planet, a 10metre bronze baby and a series of burning sculptures which thanks to new technology, can burn with real fire inside the museum without a flue. The relationship between art and science is explored both in the museum collection and the artists work.


Related project: The Littoral Zone