ART CITIES: Rotterdam-Thomas J Price

Thomas J Price’s practice confronts preconceived attitudes towards representation and identity, foregrounding the intrinsic value of the individual and subverting structures of hierarchy. Celebrated for his large-scale figurative sculptures, Price draws our attention to the psychological embodiment of his fictional characters, highlighting nuanced understandings of social signifiers and predetermined value.

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Kunsthal Rotterdam Archive

Amalgamated from multiple sources, the works are developed through a hybrid approach of traditional sculpting and intuitive digital technology. Thomas J Price balances methods of presentation, material and scale to challenge our expectations and provide cues for deeper human connection. He encompasses historic constructs with a newness that at first glance can go unnoticed, but that live in the public realm as silent totems for change. “Matter of Place” is the title of the first solo exhibition in the Netherlands of the British artist Thomas J Price. With multidisciplinary work, spanning sculpture, performance, photography, and animation, Price constantly bends the conventions of material, scale, and presentation. The artist focuses on themes of representation and humanism and how we relate and respond to power structures within society. In this large-scale retrospective, is  shown a wide variety of works from Price’s two-decade-spanning career: from the early performance “Licked” (2001) to recent sculptures such as “A Place Beyond: (2022). The video documentation of the performance “Licked” (2001), which him licking a gallery wall over the course of three days. The artist conceived the work as an expression of presence in absence, of being in a space without being seen. Although to date this remains Price’s only performance piece, it continues to have a major impact on his multidisciplinary work and way of thinking. All  the disciplines from his oeuvre are present, including the photographic work ‘”Hand Arrangement (The Complex Journeys of a Simple Form)” (2023), and the more recent abstract painting ‘”Momentary Interface” (2022). Central to Price’s figurative sculptures is the following question: What does it mean to be acknowledged in society and what does it mean if you are not? Price embodies everyday, fictional characters in his psychological portraits, realised through a mix of digital technology and traditional sculptural techniques. Often using 3D-scanning to capture a variety of poses and facial expressions of individuals, he is able to construct and manipulate multiple sculptural elements simultaneously to create a single image of an imaginary person, and confronts the viewer with stereotypes surrounding perception and identity. An example of this is the almost four-metre-high sculpture “Moments Contained” (2023), which stands in front of Rotterdam Central Station. It depicts a Black woman wearing Nike trainers with her fists clenched in the pockets of her sweatpants. Do viewers recognise themselves, someone they know, or does she confront them with their own prejudices? Price uses his sculptures as a form of critique against the traditional statues that often place influential people from history on a pedestal. Although sometimes monumental in scale, the characters the artist depicts are modest and instantly recognisable in their everyday attire and informal poses. In the public space, Price intentionally refrains from placing his amalgam characters on a pedestal. Instead, he allows them to stand with both feet firmly on the ground, as is demonstrated by the large sculpture “Reaching Out”( 2020), which is standing in front of the Kunsthal entrance during the exhibition. It is a portrait of a young woman who is looking at her mobile phone, constantly digitally connected to the world while at the same time isolated from her immediate surroundings. “Moments Contained” reconfigures the same fictional character in a new scale and pose, highlighting further the subtle shifts in presentation and perception that resonate throughout the artist’s practice. Price combines innovative methods with classical techniques, such as bronze casting, gilding, or sculpting in marble. Examples of this in the exhibition are the ongoing series of gilded heads “Untitled (Icons)” started in 2017, or the pink marble “Through a Steady Gaze” from 2023. Bronze, gold, and marble are often chosen due to their established hierarchy within the canon of art history, while the figures they represent are ordinary. In this way Price is subtly undermining the expectations of the viewer: he recalibrates the image we have of Black people in contemporary society and art. Price doesn’t exclusively work with traditional materials. For his series “Numen”( 2016), for instance, he used state-of-the-art aluminium, a material that we would sooner associate with mobile phones and aviation technology than with sculptures.

Photo: Thomas J Price, Momentary Interface, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 130.2 x 160.4 x 4.4 cm. Photo: John Etter, © Thomas J Price, Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth

Info: Kunsthal Rotterdam, Museumpark, Westzeedijk 341, Rotterdam, Netherlands, Duration: 5/10/2024-9/2/2025, Days & Hours: Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00, www.kunsthal.nl/