Eric Bainbridge
27 March - 3 May 1997

Delfina will present a major survey of recent works by British sculptor Eric Bainbridge. Touring from the Cornerhouse, Manchester, this exhibition will include over twenty wall and floor based pieces not previously shown in London.

Eric Bainbridge rose to prominence on both sides of the Atlantic following exhibitions at Air Gallery, London (1985), Salvatore Ala Gallery, New York (1985), Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis (1986), Karsten Schubert, London (1987), Salvatore Ala Gallery, New York (1988), the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (1988), Riverside Studios, London (1990), and Pittsburgh Center for the Arts (1992). Recent works have featured in such exhibitions as the Weltkunst Collection, IMMA Dublin (1994), 'ACE', Hayward Gallery (1996), 'Private View', Bowes Museum (1996), and 'Material Culture', Hayward Gallery (1997). Bainbridge received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Sculpture in 1996.

This exhibition will reveal a significant and positive change in direction for the artist. The familiar large scale fake fur sculptures of the previous decade reached a point of fruition for Bainbridge by the early nineties, leading to a particularly fertile period for the artist. Bainbridge began to make works in an extensive range of materials - video, bronze, clay, knick-knacks, food, house paint, wax, used furniture and, predominantly, chipboard. The irreverence of such an approach, and indeed of the resulting works, is balanced by Bainbridge's intuitive engagement with the aesthetic. Though we may be presented with work made from discarded kitchen furniture, covered in what looks like chip fat, our eyes are soon drawn to a red plastic edge, or a steel fitting which shimmers exquisitely before a synthetic marble surface.

It is with similar intention that these new works bear the traces of their fabrication. Throughout the pieces we find evidence of the artist's handling - the wax modelling, the glued constructions, the large sections of chipboard roughly screwed together, the wool blanket tied loosely with rope, the action man with feet nailed harshly into the plinth. It is in the handling of material, as well as in the material itself, that references might be found to archetypes of modernism or avant garde art, as a fluorescent light might suggest Dan Flavin, or a grey blanket Beuys. However, the elegance and sophistication of these works belong only to Bainbridge.
This exhibition will introduce a significant body of new work by an important and relevant British sculptor. Please call Cecile Cabal (0171 357 6600) for further information or photographs.

A comprehensive catalogue will accompany the exhibition, price £10.