Fergal Stapleton
Fergal Stapleton (born 1961, Ireland) is a contemporary artist living and working in London.
Stapleton studied at Middlesex Polytechnic (now Middlesex University) and graduated from the MA Programme at Goldsmiths College, London in 1993. Between 1994 and 1997 he collaborated on a number of works with Turner Prize nominee Rebecca Warren.
Stuart Morgan (art critic) on Stapleton's 1993 show "His manner of entertaining us…the worst thing I have ever done." (Frieze, No. 10, May 1993): 'The logic of dandyism as a mode of conceptual art assumes a view of the dandy not as engaged in a foppish, decadent pursuit but as an attempt to get over class distinction by creating one's own aristocracy, doing what aristocrats do but doing it better, secure in the knowledge that their order and the natural superiority it implies is on a false premise.’
JJ Charlesworth on Stapleton's 2007 show, "And a Door Opened", (TimeOut No. 1924): 'Stapleton's excellent show… produces a rare insight into the difference between images and objects, and how mere junk changes into art… They're inches away, but seem to inhabit a distant, unattainably parallel universe. Stapleton is an often overlooked talent… often eclipsed by the raucous posturings of his YBA contemporaries. Compared with the tired bombast of Damien Hirst's animal vitrines – pictures masquerading as objects – these extraordinary experiments in material transfiguration show how sculptural poetry is still alive and well… Stapleton's great skill lies in showing how art works in the reordering of things known, producing new, unexpected value out of the slightest of means.'
Stapleton has been an occasional lecturer on the MA Fine Art programmes at Goldsmiths College, University of London, Birmingham Institute of Art & Design, Birmingham City University, and the Slade School of Fine Art. He has also contributed to the art review section of TimeOut magazine (Nos. 1418 & 1421–1425).
Stapleton is additionally a director of V22 Foundation.
Stapleton is additionally the author of a novel titled After the Death of the Goat God (Key Principles in History 2) ISBN 978-0956441928
Stapleton is represented by Carl Freedman Gallery, London, where he has had five solo shows, I Shall Arrive Soon in 2003, Stapleton Grey (which he described as an exhibition of paintings of interior twilights, ash atmospherics, hope expressed in loose change, woozy surface mix-ups, semi-curious squints at uncertain shapes and irrelevant light-sources) in 2006, And a Door Opened in 2007, dOr in 2010, and 2moro in 2014.
Solo exhibitions (selected)
- 2moro (Carl Freedman Gallery, 2014)
- dOr (Carl Freedman Gallery, 2010)
- If one good deed in all my life I did, I do repent it from my very soul (V22, London 2009)
- Art Show (in V22 Presents:The Wharf Rd Project 2008)
- Open Space (Art Cologne, 2008)
- And a Door Opened (Carl Freedman Gallery, 2007)
- Stapleton Grey (Counter Gallery, London, 2006)
- Sunny Side Up (The Audrey Reynolds Plinth, Throgmorton's, London, 2004)
- I Shall Arrive Soon (Counter Gallery, London, 2003)
- Crack Whore (Five Years, London, 2002)
- Bad Ape Report (Neon gallery Billboard, London, 2001)
- This (Platform, London, 2000)
- The Tears (Riutsu Centre, Tokyo, 1996)
- Tonight (The Agency, London, 1995)
- His manner of entertaining us...the worst thing I have ever done (The Agency, London, 1993)
Collaborations
- The Unadorned Hardcore World of the Anabolic Mutant in Stir (with Rebecca Warren, The Showroom, London 1997)
- Rebecca Warren and Fergal Stapleton, Cleveland, London, 1996
- RW,GG,FS (with Rebecca Warren and Graham Gussin, Laure Genillard Gallery, London, 1995)
- Retrospective:Your Mother (with Rebecca Warren, 152c Brick Lane, London 1994)
Group exhibitions (selected)
- £5.34 (Carl Freedman Gallery, London 2013)
- Frauge (Carl Freedman Gallery, London 2012)
- A Darkness More Than Night (QUAD Gallery, Derby 2012)
- The Shape We're In (Zabludowicz Collection, 176 Prince of Wales Rd, London 2011)
- Newspeak: British Art Now (Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York's HQ, London 2010)
- Seated Man (Carl Freedman Gallery, London 2010)
- Newspeak: British Art Now (The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg 2009)
- Space Now: 40th Anniversary Exhibition (The Triangle, London 2008)
- Toutes Compositions Florales (Carl Freedman Gallery, London 2006)
- 50th Anniversary Exhibition (The Showroom, London 2006)
- The Trumpets of Justice (Carl Freedman Gallery, London 2005)
- Picture Room (Gasworks, London 2003)
- The Straight or Crooked Way (The Triangle, London 2003)
- Chockerfuckingblocked (Jeffrey Charles Gallery, London 2003)
- The Ink Jetty (Neon, London 2002)
- The Green Room (Percy Miller Gallery, London 2002)
- The Difference Between You and Me (Five Years, London, 2002)
- Plinth (The Trade Apartment, London, 2002)
- Being and Nothingness (Workplace, Toronto 2001)
- Dot (Arthur Rose Gallery, London, and The Henry Moore Institute, Leeds 2000)
- Serial Killers (Platform, London 2000)
- Resolute (Platform, London 1999)
- Root (The Chisenhale, London 1998)
- Class Vegas (The Embassy, London, 1997)
- Martin (The Commercial Gallery, London 1997)
- Craft (Richard Salmon Gallery, London, and Kettles Yard, Cambridge 1997)
- Light (Richard Salmon Gallery, London, and Spacex, Exeter 1997)
- 50x50x50x50 (Bank, London 1996)
- I Beg to Differ (Milch, London 1996)
- Out of Space (Cole and Cole, Oxford 1996)
- Viper: Bank TV (Bank, London, 1996)
- The Happy Shopper (Elephant & Castle, London 1996)
- Dog-U-Mental (Bank, London 1996)
- Disneyland After Dark: La Ronde (Kunstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, and Konstmuseum, Uppsala 1996)
- Die Zweite Wirchlichkeit (Galerie Michael Schill, Stuttgart 1994)
- Mind the Gap: Hardcopys und Technologische Bilder (Galerie Voges & Deisen, Frankfurt, and Acud Gallery, Berlin 1994)
- Miniatures (The Agency, London 1994)
- 50x50x50x50 (Cologne 1994)
- The Infanta of Castile (London 1993)
Curations
- The Real, (in V22 Presents:The Sculpture Show, The Biscuit Factory, London, 2009)
Collections (selected)
- Cranford
- Elkann
- Maag
- March
- Saatchi
- V22
- Van Esch
- Zabludowicz
Novel
After the Death of the Goat God (Key Principles in History 2), published in 2012 by Grey Tiger ISBN 978-0956441928
External links
- Carl Freedman Gallery
- Frieze Art Fair
- Collaborations with Rebecca Warren
- Saatchi
- Stapletongrey
- Stuart Morgan on Fergal Stapleton
- Philip King on Fergal Stapleton and Rebecca Warren