This is the first solo exhibition in Latin America of work by one of Britain’s most acclaimed artists, Rachel Whiteread. She has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in Europe and America over the last decade, won the Turner prize in 1993 and represented Britain at the 1997 Venice Biennale.

The exhibition was initiated by the British Council in collaboration with the Brazilian curator and writer Paulo Venancio Filho, selector of the Rio section of Tate Modern’s recent Century City exhibition. The artist has been closely involved in the selection of work and travelled to the Museu de Arte Moderna, Sao Paulo, for the installation of the exhibition.

Conceived as a modestly sized overview, the exhibition includes ten major sculptural works dating from 1990 to the present, as well as documentation on the Holocaust memorial in Vienna’s Judenplatz and House (1993), Whiteread’s monumental cast of an East London terraced house, now demolished. Three works were completed specially for this exhibition and have never previously been shown, including a large floor piece in resinated felt, produced by Steven Beyer, New York. Also included are a wide range of multiples, editions and small sculptures.

A full colour, 100 page catalogue has been published by the museums in Rio and Sao Paulo in collaboration with the British Council, with texts in Portugese and English by curators Paulo Venancio and Ann Gallagher.

Collection Artist(s)

Glossary

  • Cast

    To form material such as molten metal, liquid plaster or liquid plastic into a three-dimensional shape, by pouring into a mould. Also see Lost-wax casting.

  • Curator

    A person who creates exhibitions or who is employed to look after and research museum objects.

  • Installation

    An artwork comprised of many and various elements of miscellaneous materials (see mixed media), light and sound, which is conceived for and occupies an entire space, gallery or site. The viewer can often enter or walk around the installation. Installations may only exist as long as they are installed, but can be re-created in different sites. Installation art emerged in the 1960s out of Environmental Art (works of art which are three-dimensional environments), but it was not until the 1970s that the term came into common use and not until the late 1980s that artists started to specialise in this kind of work, creating a genre of ‘Installation Art’. The term can also be applied to the arrangement of selected art works in an exhibition.