Artist Spotlight
In Rachel Whiteread’s sculptures and drawings, everyday settings, objects, and surfaces are transformed into ghostly replicas that are eerily familiar. Through casting, she frees her subject matter—from beds, tables, and boxes to water towers and entire houses—from practical use, suggesting a new permanence, imbued with memory.
The Artist Spotlight series highlights the work of individual artists for one week each month. Launched in spring 2020 as a weekly platform, the series is now in its second season and is presented as a regular part of the gallery’s programming. Each Artist Spotlight features new online content, and artwork by the artist is made available with pricing information for forty-eight hours only.
Artist Spotlight: Rachel Whiteread features a recent cast sculpture from a new body of work by the artist. For more information, please contact the gallery at collecting@gagosian.com.
#GagosianSpotlight
Photo: Anita Corbin, from the series First Women UK
In Conversation
Tom Eccles and Kiki Smith on Rachel Whiteread
On the occasion of Artist Spotlight: Rachel Whiteread, curator Tom Eccles and artist Kiki Smith speak about the work of Rachel Whiteread through the lens of their personal friendships with her. They discuss her public projects from the early 1990s to the present, the relationship between drawing and sculpture in her practice, and the way her works reveal the memories embedded in familiar everyday objects.
In Conversation
Rachel Whiteread and Ann Gallagher
Rachel Whiteread speaks to Ann Gallagher about a new group of resin sculptures for an upcoming exhibition at Gagosian in London. They discuss the works’ emphasis on surface texture, light, and reflection.
Rachel Whiteread on Piero della Francesca
Rachel Whiteread writes about the Italian artist’s Baptism of Christ (after 1437) and what has drawn her to this painting, from her first experience of it at a young age to the present day.
Solid Recollections: Rachel Whiteread
James Lawrence explores the quiet power and critical role of memory in Rachel Whiteread’s public works.
Augurs of Spring
As spring approaches in the Northern Hemisphere, Sydney Stutterheim reflects on the iconography and symbolism of the season in art both past and present.
Cast of Characters
James Lawrence explores how contemporary artists have grappled with the subject of the library.
Related Exhibitions
Related News
In Conversation
Tom Eccles and Kiki Smith on Rachel Whiteread
Tuesday, October 27, 2020, 2pm EDT
Join curator Tom Eccles and artist Kiki Smith as they discuss the work of Rachel Whiteread through the lens of their personal friendships with her. They talk about the way her works reveal the memory embedded in familiar everyday objects, her drawing practice, and their experience of public projects by Whiteread such as Water Tower, installed on a New York rooftop in 1998. Their conversation, recorded on the occasion of Artist Spotlight: Rachel Whiteread, will air online. To register to watch, complete this form.
Rachel Whiteread, Cabin, 2016, permanent installation, Governors Island, New York © Rachel Whiteread. Photo: Tim Schenck
Online Reading
Rachel Whiteread
Detached
Rachel Whiteread: Detached is available for online reading from October 21 through November 19 as part of Artist Spotlight: Rachel Whiteread. Published on the occasion of the artist’s 2013 exhibition at Gagosian, Britannia Street, London, this catalogue features in situ images of Detached 1, Detached 2, and Detached 3 (all 2012), along with documentary photographs of the works in progress. Also included are vitrines incorporating found objects, small casts, and maquettes; a series of resin sculptures, cast from doors and windows, in delicate hues such as rose and eau de Nil; and works on paper. A text by Briony Fer examines the materiality of Whiteread’s work.
Rachel Whiteread: Detached (London: Gagosian, 2013)
Video
Rachel Whiteread
Drawings
Join Rachel Whiteread in her London studio as she discusses the centrality of drawing in her practice and the collections of objects that serve as inspirations and sources for her sculptures and works on paper. This video was produced on the occasion of a 2010–11 exhibition of her drawings at Tate Britain, London.
Still from “Rachel Whiteread: Drawings”
Museum Exhibitions
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Rachel Whiteread
September 7, 2019–March 8, 2020
Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens
georgiamuseum.org
Using various materials to articulate the negative space surrounding or contained by objects, Rachel Whiteread has elaborated various approaches to casting and impression as subject, process, and vehicle for content. In this solo exhibition, Whiteread is exhibiting a 2010 series of five outdoor stone sculptures, cast from the voids under different chairs.
Rachel Whiteread, Untitled, 2010 © Rachel Whiteread
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Objects of Wonder
From Pedestal to Interaction
October 12, 2019–March 1, 2020
ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark
www.aros.dk
Objects of Wonder features sculptural works from 1960 until the present. The exhibition, conceptualized in collaboration with Tate, London, showcases recent sensory or thought-provoking sculpture and experiments. The audience encounters a series of works that challenge the genre, where tactility, context, and light play a central role. Work by Damien Hirst, Bruce Nauman, and Rachel Whiteread is included.
Rachel Whiteread, Untitled (Air Bed II), 1992 © Rachel Whiteread
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Rachel Whiteread in
Resonating Spaces
October 6, 2019–January 26, 2020
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel
www.fondationbeyeler.ch
Resonating Spaces aims to create a specific quality of spatiality in very varied forms—acoustic, sculpted, and drawn. Although different from one another, the works in the show create spaces rather than being perceived as single objects only. They induce sites and respites in which the capacity of remembering is elicited and images and memories come to life. Work by Rachel Whiteread is included.
Installation view, Resonating Spaces, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, October 6, 2019–January 26, 2020. Artwork © Rachel Whiteread
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Pushing Paper
Contemporary Drawing from 1970 to Now
September 12, 2019–January 12, 2020
British Museum, London
britishmuseum.org
Celebrating drawing in its own right, rather than its historic role as preparatory to painting, this exhibition explores how contemporary artists have used drawing to examine themes including identity, place, and memory. Work by Glenn Brown, Ellen Gallagher, Anselm Kiefer, and Rachel Whiteread is included.
Glenn Brown, Children of the Revolution (after Rembrandt), 2017 © Glenn Brown