Photographs from a visit to the studio of the artist Gavin Turk in March 2022.

Gavin Turk (b 1967) is a British-born, internationally renowned artist, who lives and works in London. He has pioneered many forms of contemporary British sculpture, including the waxwork, the painted bronze, the recycled art-historical icon and the use of rubbish in art.

Turk’s installations and sculptures deal with issues of authorship, authenticity and identity. Concerned with the ‘myth’ of the artist and ontological questioning. Turk’s engagement with this modernist, avant-garde debate stretches back to the ready-mades of Marcel Duchamp.

In 1991, the Royal College of Art refused Turk a degree on the basis that his final show, ‘Cave’, consisted of a whitewashed studio space containing only a blue heritage plaque commemorating his presence ‘Gavin Turk worked here 1989-91′. Instantly gaining notoriety through this installation, Turk was spotted by Charles Saatchi and was included in several YBA exhibitions.

Gavin Turk’s work is held within public and private collections worldwide, including but not limited to the TATE, Museum of Modern Art New York, Museum MMK Für Moderne Kunst, Musée Magritte Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

In 2013 Prestel published Turk’s first monograph, showcasing more than two decades of his work and in 2014 Trolley Books published ‘This Is Not A Book About Gavin Turk’ which playfully explores themes associated with the artist’s work via thirty notable contributors.

Text taken from the website of Gavin Turk