Biography
Research Summary
Brighid Lowe's work uses a wide variety of media and formats including text, sculpture and drawing. Current research considers ideas of evidence, loss, value and the tensions between rhetoric and substance, representation and materiality. Previous research has centred around the archive as a model of representation and the mapping of digital space.
Solo exhibitions include Jerwood Artists' Platform, London in 2004. Group exhibitions include Intelligence, Tate Britain, 2000; You Are At Home Here, Lokaal 01, Breda, Holland, 2003, Take Shape-Make Shift, Instants Chavires, Paris, 2010 and Switch, Baltic 39, Newcastle upon Tyne in 2012.
Recent writings have been included in an anthology of artists' fiction, The Alpine Fantasy of Victor B and Other Stories and have been performed at The Known Unkowns at Volatile Dispersal, Festival of Art Writing at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, 2009.
In 1998, she received a Paul Hamlyn Award for Artists and in 2007, Rain Drawing (1) was awarded second prize in the Jerwood Drawing Prize.
Exhibitions
Nomadic Reading Room
2013Nomadic Reading Room, Roundhouse, Myatt's Field, London, UK
A selection of artists' books, printed matter and ephemera curated by Connie Butler. The collection includes work by Milly Thompson, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Ed Atkins, The Coelacanth Journal, The Happy Hypocrite and Patrick Coyle.
Einde
2013Lokaal 01, Breda, Netherlands
Large group exhibition to mark the closure of Lokaal 01, Breda, Netherlands.
Last Day
2012Cartel, The Old Police Station, Deptford, London, UK
A group show curated by Paul O'Neill, including the artists Liam Gillick, Ian Whittlesea, Pavel Buchler and Mark Hutchinson.
Parts and Labour
2012Camberwell Space, Camberwell College of Arts, London, UK
Parts and Labour (3 Hours minimum Wage) was an experimental project devised and curated by John Chilver and Brighid Lowe at Camberwell Space, Camberwell College of Art, London. Artists were invited to send instructions for actions or operations to be done to a pre-defined kit of materials, in no more than two hours' paid labour. The artists were paid for one hour at the minimum wage; the assistants who carried out the instructions were paid for two hours at the minimum wage level. Parts and Labour was an experiment devised to reflect upon the material conditions of art production and the hierarchies and value of authorship and interpretation. Participating artists: Leah Capaldi, Marc Camille Chaimowicz, Charlie Jeffery, Gareth Jones, Francesco Pedraglio, Adrian Piper, Martina Schmuecker, Florian Slotawa, Sarah Staton, Richard Wentworth. The exhibition will be re-staged in Germany, with the same artists instructions being re-interpreted by a totally different group of assistants. The exhibition posed many questions around the slippery definitions of authorship, intention, value, creative abilities and instruction.
Switch
2012Baltic 39, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
SWITCH - the inaugural exhibition of the Baltic's new exhibition space, Baltic 39, Newcastle upon Tyne. SWITCH, selected by renowned artist Phyllida Barlow, built upon What Do Artists Do?, a 2008 project organised by Barlow and funded by the Arts Council designed to examine change in artistic practice and the act of making. Both the project and the exhibition invited the audience to question the role of the exhibition and to share and test the performative complexity of artistic production. My piece, Evidence 2008-12, was developed during What Do Artists Do? in 2008 and at an artists' residency at the Sculpture Studio, Chapter, Cardiff, Wales in March 2009. Evidence 2008-12, is an archive-audit of over 4,300 unique private view cards, installed as a vast be-spoke floor work to be walked upon. In part an act of mourning for the 'death' of the private view card, part an archive of a period of time and part a symbolic representation of a field of cultural activity, it is simultaneously celebratory and critical of the sheer mass of art production. The work is experiential - manifesting data and evidence as a material landscape - permitting the collection to be experienced collectively, individually and materially (rather than sequentially and virtually as in a digital context). Damaged cards are replaced by new private view cards, in an endless cycle of production and consumption, producing a continuously evolving work.
Friendship of the Peoples
2011Simon Oldfield Gallery, Covent Garden, London, UK
Group show in which twenty artists proposed another twenty artists to build a community of forty artists. All the artists produced a uniform sized work around the idea of the poster. Other artists exhibiting included: Bridget Smith, Fiona Banner, Daniel Sturgis, Matthew Higgs. Two works were exhibited 'Evidence Poster' 2009, screen print on poster paper, dimensions of each: 52x42 cms. This work was originally produced as part of Phyllida Barlow's Arts Council funded research project "What Do Artists Do?". An accompanying catalogue was published by the Simon Oldfield Gallery with a text by Matthew Collings.
Several Interruptions: 15 Years of the Slade Centre for Electronic Media in Fine Art
2011North Lodge, Gower Street, UCL
Seven, sequential solo presentations to celebrate 15 years of the Slade Centre for Electronic Media in Fine Art in 2011. Exhibited: 'Each Long Second' 2006, A0 photocopies, tape. Dimensions: 880 X 850 cms.
Take Shape - Make Shift // Prendre forme - Provisoire
2010Instants Chavires, Montreuil, Paris, France
Group show curated by Charlie Jeffery at Instants Chavires, Paris, France. Instants Chavires is a music and art venue conceived as a laboratory for improvised, experimental and noise music and the visual and sonic arts. Work from 16 artists, including John Cage, Tom Cale, Matthew Houlding, Charlie Jeffery. One work exhibited: 'Each Long Second' 2006, A0 photocopies, tape. Dimensions 880 x 850 cms.
Use and Mention
2010Stephen Lawrence Gallery, The University of Greenwich, London, UK
A group exhibition about collage, curated by John Chilver. Other exhibiting artists included: Gareth Jones, Simon Bedwell, Goshka Macuga, Martha Rosler, DJ Simpson.
I am by Birth a Genevese
2009Forde-Espace d'art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland
Large group show shown in two venues: Vegas Gallery, Redchurch Steet, London, UK and at Forde-Espace d'art Contemporain, Geneva,
Unfold
2009Nettie Horn, Vyner Street, London, UK
Exhibited work: Rain Drawing (1), 2006 150 X 216 cms Paper, pen, rain
I am by Birth a Genevese
2009Vegas Gallery, Redchurch Street, London, UK
Large group show shown in two venues: Vegas Gallery, Redchurch Steet, London, UK and at Forde-Espace d'art Contemporain, Geneva, Switzerland. Other artists included: Pierre Bismuth, Christian Marclay, Paul Noble, Laure Provost.
Liz Arnold, Camden Arts Centre
2009Camden Arts Centre, London
Liz Arnold (1964-2001) was one of the most original painters to emerge onto the London art scene in the 1990s. Co-curated with the artists Bridget Smith, Richard Kirwan and Dan Sturgis at the Camden Arts Centre, London, this posthumous survey exhibition was designed to critically re-assess the possibilities of imaginative, figurative painting as a prescient and viable language. The exhibition involved extensive research to assemble and then exhibit Arnold's representations of alien, hybrid worlds populated by fly-women, smoking ladybirds and femme-fatale bugs. It was accompanied by a File Note publication, ISBN 978 1 900470 91 9. All four curators participated in a public discussion with Andrew Graham Dixon at Camden Arts Centre. The exhibition was featured and reviewed in the Independent, the Sunday Telegraph, the Guardian and Time Out. I was invited to write about Liz Arnold's work in the Time Out Art Preview, March 12th 2009. This exhibition was awarded additional funding from The Elephant Trust, and its publication was additionally funded by the Cranford Collection. Camden Arts Centre is funded by the Arts Council, Camden Council and the Clore Duffield Foundation.
Embedded
2008Gimpel Fils, 30 Davies Street, London, W1K 4NB
Two exhibited works: 'Each Long Second', 2006, A0 photocopies, tape. Dimensions: 880 x 850 cms. 'Rain Drawing (2), 2007, pen, paper, rain. Dimensions: 100 x 140 cms. Reviewed in Art Monthly, Sept 08/No 319.
Walls Have Ears
2008Man&Eve, 131 Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4JJ
Verisimilitude
2006the gallery at Wimbledon, Wimbledon College of Art, London
A group exhibition curated by Jeremy Akerman, which featured new work from Brighid Lowe, Tariq Alvi, Michael Curran, with supporting work from two photographers, and an essay by the artist Paul Rooney. The exhibition coincided with the drawing conference 'With a Single Mark: The Models and Practice of Drawing', organised by Avis Newman(from Wimbledon School of Art's Centre for Drawing) at Tate Britain. A publication 'Verisimilitude. ISBN: 9780948327261' was produced in 2007, which includes 16 pages of images of my work and an interview with myself. This new work included: Rain Drawing(1)2006,200 X 160 cm, paper,pen,rain; Each Long Second 2006, 12 x 15 metres, photocopies, tape; 9 untitled drawings, A3 or smaller, pen, pencil, paper, and cut outs.
Responding to Rome
2006Estorick Collection of Modern Italian Art, London
Responding to Rome:British Artists in Rome, 1995-2005. a group exhibition of selected artworks made by scholars at the British School at Rome during the last decade. One large 150 X 180 cms cut out colour photograph exhibited.
Brighid Lowe - Jerwood Artist's Platform
2004Jerwood Space, London
Jerwood Artists Platform, set up by the Jerwood Charity to select four artists a year from UK-wide nomination, for solo exhibitions at the Jerwood Space, London, designed to promote emerging and talented visual artists. Accompanying exhibition pamphlet with an essay by Tony Wood, Assistant Editor of New Left Review.
Tonight
2004Studio Voltaire, London
Group show curated by Paul O'Neill with over 50 artists including: Simon Bedwell, Dave Beech, Ian Breakwell, Adam Chodsko, Gareth Jones, Liam Gillick, Elizabeth Price, Hayley Newman.
You Are At Home Here
2003Lokaal 01, Breda, Netherlands
Friction
2003The London Print Studio Gallery, London
Turpentine
2003Studio Voltaire, London
New Religious Art 1992-2002
2002Henry Peacock Gallery, London. Toured to Liverpool Biennial (Ind
'Marianne, I cannot understand, tell me more'. L'archive, entre collection et production
2001Galerie d'Art et Essai, Universite de Rennes, France
Unedited Confessions
2001Vox, Montreal, Canada
Cool Green
2000MOCA, Washington DC, USA
Intelligence: New British Art 2000
2000Tate Britain, London
Intelligence was the inaugural exhibition of the Tate Triennial, a series of contemporary exhibitions held at Tate Britain, to introduce some of the best new art to a wider audience. My work "I Saw Two Englands Breakaway" 1996-97,(225 paperback books, 450 perspex mounts, C-type on flexibase) was exhibited. Made over a two year period, the books were collected from the alternative economic structures of the dispossessed: second-hand bookshops, car boot fairs and charity shops. The titles of the books were arranged to construct a text that dealt with the betrayals, politics and failed ideologies of contemporary Britain. The text can be read via the book covers or via the reproduction of the text that faces them.
Fossick
2000Sali Gia, London
John I'm Only Dancing
2000Margaret Harvey Gallery, St Albans
Brighid Lowe
1999The British School at Rome, Italy
Thinking Aloud
1999Camden Arts Centre, London
and...and...and...and
1999Het Consortium, Amsterdam
Publications
Verisimilitude
A publication 'Verisimilitude. ISBN: 9780948327261' was produced in 2007, to record the exhibition Verisimilitude at the gallery at Wimbledon College of Art in April 2006. The publication includes includes 16 pages of images of my work and an interview with myself.
Ghost Writer, short story in anthology of artists' fiction, The Alpine Fantasy of Victor B.
A unique compilation of fiction by contemporary British artists, commissioned and edited by Jeremy Akerman and Eileen Daly. The book was launched at a public reading as part of Late at Tate Britain, and was featured on BBC Radio 4's 'Front Row' and reviewed in the Guardian. Published by Serpent's Tail with additional funding from The Elephant Trust.
Dr Clock's Handbook
Artist's project for an anthology of the absurd. Other contributers include Glen Baxter, Damien Hirst, Richard Prince, David Shrigley.
Access Permitted
Commissioned to write the pamphlet esay on Derek Tyman/Emma Rushton, Kwong Lee, to accompany their exhibition at Unit 2 gallery, London Metropolitan University.
Have This One On Me
I Cannot Understand, Tell Me More
Citizens of Spam
Something for Nothing?
Art Schools: Could do Better
What Do Artists Do?
A public performance and presentation made at the Mead Gallery, Warwick Arts Centre, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK. Developed by the participating artists in the year long Arts Council funded research project 'What Do Artists Do?' led by the artist Phyllida Barlow. This research project established a working environment in which 16 artists could engage in developing art work and ideas in an environment when no outcomes were expected. The research project placed an emphasis on the invisible aspects of production normally obscured by the convention of an exhibition. Alongside the development of new work, the artists developed a series of workshops, discussions, seminars and screenings.
The Known Unknowns / Volatile Dispersal / Festival of Art Writing
A public reading from a text work 'Evidence', performed as part of the programme 'The Known Unknowns' curated by Francesco Pedraglio, at the Festival of Art Writing at the Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK. 'Evidence' is an extended text that narrativises in a playful way the culture and bureaucracy of judgement and accreditation, and imagines the impossibility of auditing love and loss. 'Evidence' was developed during the year long Arts Council funded research project 'What Do Artists Do?'- led by the artist Phyllida Barlow.
