SCAF – Sherman Contemporary Art Foundation

Shaun Gladwell‘s two-part project is exhibited across two sites: SCAF features a major new commission The Lacrima Chair and UNSW Galleries presents Collection+: Shaun Gladwell, a selection of over 20 works drawn from public and private collections worldwide.

The Lacrima Chair is comprised of several interrelated fragments: a mist screen, an airline chair doused in water, three video works and an artist book in the form of a Semiotext(e) referencing the 1960s publication that influenced Shaun and many of his generation. Each component makes obvious and abstruse references to flight, distance, cultural translation and the notion of function in art. Since completing a residency at the Cité Internationale des Art in 2000, Gladwell has had an ongoing interest in French culture. The Lacrima Chair explores the cultural connection between France and Australia.

A comprehensive bilingual English/French catalogue, published by SCAF, accompanies this exhibition.

Shaun Gladwell: The Lacrima Chair (SCAF Project 24) and Collection+: Shaun Gladwell (SCAF Project 25) will be on show at SCAF and UNSW Galleries respectively from 6 March – 25 April 2015.

Watch Gene Sherman, Executive Director of SCAF; Barbara Polla, co-curator of Collection+: Shaun Gladwell; and Shaun Gladwell discuss the projects in this short film.

Shaun Gladwell was born in Sydney, Australia, in 1972 and completed an honours degree at Sydney College of the Arts, The University of Sydney, before undertaking postgraduate research with the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales (now UNSW Art & Design). He was awarded the Anne and Gordon Samstag International Visual Arts Scholarship in 2001 and conducted associate research at Goldsmiths College, University of London, in 2001–02. He undertook an Australia Council studio residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, in 2001 and many subsequent residencies and commissions in Europe, North and South America and the Asia–Pacific region have followed. Over the past decade, Gladwell has exhibited widely throughout Australia and in the United States, South America, Asia, Canada and Europe. He exhibited
at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007 and represented Australia in the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009, and has had numerous solo exhibitions.

Gladwell’s work is represented in many international public and private collections such as the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, Orange County Museum of Art, California, Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Connecticut, JUT Foundation for Arts and Architecture, Taiwan, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Tokyo, SCHUNCK*, Heerlen,
The Netherlands, VideoBrasil, Brazil, Tichy Ocean Foundation Collection, Czech Republic, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, Artbank, Australia, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney, University of Technology, Sydney, The University of Sydney, Sydney, and Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, New Zealand.