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Artist Spotlight

Rachel Whiteread

October 21–27, 2020

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.

Photo: Anita Corbin, from the series First Women UK

Photo: Anita Corbin, from the series First Women UK

Rachel Whiteread

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.

Still from the video "In Conversation: Rachel Whiteread and Ann Gallagher"

In Conversation
Rachel Whiteread and Ann Gallagher

Rachel Whiteread speaks to Ann Gallagher about a new group of resin sculptures for an exhibition at Gagosian in London. They discuss the works’ emphasis on surface texture, light, and reflection.

Piero della Francesca, The Baptism of Christ, after 1437, egg on poplar.

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

Solid Recollections: Rachel Whiteread

James Lawrence explores the quiet power and critical role of memory in Rachel Whiteread’s public works.

Installation view of Rachel Whiteread's ...And the Animals Were Sold exhibition in Italy

Rachel Whiteread: … And the Animals Were Sold

An installation by Rachel Whiteread in the Palazzo della Ragione, Bergamo, Italy, commissioned by Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo and cocurated by Lorenzo Giusti and Sara Fumagalli, opened in June of 2023 and ran into the fall. Conceived in relation to the city, the architecture of the site, and the history of the region, it comprised sixty sculptures made with local types of stone. Fumagalli writes on the exhibition and architect Luca Cipelletti speaks with Whiteread.

Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on the cover of Gagosian Quarterly, Winter 2022

Now available
Gagosian Quarterly Winter 2022

The Winter 2022 issue of Gagosian Quarterly is now available, featuring Anna Weyant’s Two Eileens (2022) on its cover.

Related News

Rachel Whiteread, Untitled (Azure Blue), 2021–22 © Rachel Whiteread. Photo: Thomas Lannes

In Conversation

Rachel Whiteread
Tim Marlow

Wednesday, January 24, 2024, 7:30pm
Sarabande Foundation, London
sarabandefoundation.org

Rachel Whiteread will be in conversation with Tim Marlow, director of the Design Museum, London, for the next installment in the series of INSPIRED talks organized by the Sarabande Foundation. The pair will discuss Whiteread’s recent and current projects and delve into the twists and turns of her creative career to date—from concept to form, and everything in between. Using industrial materials such as plaster, concrete, resin, rubber, and metal to cast everyday objects and architectural elements, Whiteread’s sculptural works are instantly recognizable as evocative interrogations of negative space, from the domestic to the monumental.

This event was originally scheduled for Wednesday, December 6, 2023.

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Rachel Whiteread, Untitled (Azure Blue), 2021–22 © Rachel Whiteread. Photo: Thomas Lannes

Rachel Whiteread’s 2023 Connaught Christmas tree, London. Artwork © Rachel Whiteread

Visit

Rachel Whiteread
The Connaught Christmas Tree

November 16, 2023–January 7, 2024
The Connaught, London
www.the-connaught.co.uk

Encouraging passersby to celebrate a feeling of togetherness, Rachel Whiteread has used 102 white neon hoops to decorate the Connaught hotel’s 31-foot (9.4-meter) Nordmann’s fir. Whiteread regularly uses circular motifs within her practice and here they illuminate the streets of Mayfair, acting as a symbol of hope and unity this festive season.

Rachel Whiteread’s 2023 Connaught Christmas tree, London. Artwork © Rachel Whiteread

Left: Rachel Whiteread. Right: Briony Fer

In Conversation

Rachel Whiteread
Briony Fer

Thursday, October 12, 2023, 3pm
Regent’s Park, London
www.frieze.com

Rachel Whiteread and Briony Fer will be in conversation as part of Frieze Masters Talks, a program that explores the connections between historical art and contemporary practice. The pair will discuss Whiteread’s recent and current projects, including . . . And the Animals Were Sold (2023), a new site-specific installation at the Palazzo della Ragione in Bergamo, Italy, which was conceived in relation to the historic architecture of the site and region. They will also discuss pivotal milestones in Whiteread’s life and career that paved the way for her to rise as a leading British artist. The event is free to attend with fair admission on a first-come, first-served basis.

Left: Rachel Whiteread. Right: Briony Fer

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Museum Exhibitions

Installation view, Rachel Whiteread: . . . And the Animals Were Sold, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Italy, June 23–October 29, 2023. Artwork © Rachel Whiteread. Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

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Rachel Whiteread
. . . And the Animals Were Sold

June 23–October 29, 2023
Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Italy
www.gamec.it

. . . And the Animals Were Sold is a new installation by Rachel Whiteread in Bergamo’s Palazzo della Ragione that was commissioned by Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Italy. Conceived in relation to the city, the architecture of the site, and the history of the region, it comprises sixty sculptures whose forms correspond to the empty space between the legs of two different chair models. Produced with local types of stone, the works suggest human absence and presence at once. Their arrangement evokes both the social distancing of the pandemic, which was particularly difficult for the Bergamo community, and the renewed proximity that is now possible. 

Installation view, Rachel Whiteread: . . . And the Animals Were Sold, Galleria d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Bergamo, Italy, June 23–October 29, 2023. Artwork © Rachel Whiteread. Photo: Lorenzo Palmieri

Gregory Crewdson, Untitled, 2005 © Gregory Crewdson

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Photography’s Last Century
The Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee Collection

February 17–May 21, 2023
Jepson Center, Telfair Museums, Savannah, Georgia
www.telfair.org

Photography’s Last Century celebrates the remarkable ascendancy of photography during the past hundred years, and Ann Tenenbaum and Thomas H. Lee’s promised gift of over sixty photographs to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where this exhibition originated. The collection is particularly notable for its breadth and depth of works by women artists, its sustained interest in the nude, and its focus on artists’ beginnings. Work by Gregory Crewdson, Andreas Gursky, Man Ray, Andy Warhol, and Rachel Whiteread is included. 

Gregory Crewdson, Untitled, 2005 © Gregory Crewdson

Installation view, Jubiläumsausstellung—Special Guest Duane Hanson, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland, October 30, 2022–January 8, 2023. Artwork, front to back: © 2022 Estate of Duane Hanson/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

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Jubiläumsausstellung—Special Guest Duane Hanson

October 30, 2022–January 8, 2023
Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel
www.fondationbeyeler.ch

This exhibition, whose title translates to Anniversary Exhibition—Special Guest Duane Hanson, features more than one hundred works from the foundation’s collection, from modern to contemporary art, to celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the institution. Several hyperrealist sculptures by Duane Hanson enrich the presentation, opening up surprising perspectives on the exhibited artworks, architecture, staff, and visitors. Work by Francis Bacon, Georg Baselitz, Alberto Giacometti, Anselm Kiefer, Roy Lichtenstein, Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, and Rachel Whiteread is included.

Installation view, Jubiläumsausstellung—Special Guest Duane Hanson, Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland, October 30, 2022–January 8, 2023. Artwork, front to back: © 2022 Estate of Duane Hanson/Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; © Estate of Roy Lichtenstein

Rachel Whiteread, Drigg Hut, 2022 © Rachel Whiteread

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Rachel Whiteread in
Deep Time: Commissions for the Lake District Coast–Landmark Artwork Proposal Exhibition

September 10–October 9, 2022
Beacon Museum, Whitehaven, England
thebeacon-whitehaven.co.uk

This exhibition showcases proposals developed over the last two years in response to the varied landscapes and coastline of West Cumbria, where the Lake District National Park meets the Irish Sea. Organized as part of the public art program Deep Time: Commissions for the Lake District Coast, the show presents designs, models, and films by four artists, including Rachel Whiteread, who have been shortlisted to produce a new landmark artwork for the borough of Copeland.

Rachel Whiteread, Drigg Hut, 2022 © Rachel Whiteread

See all Museum Exhibitions for Rachel Whiteread