Art and architecture unite in new works by Cyprien Gaillard at London’s Sprueth Magers
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- (opens in new tab)
- Sign up to our newsletter Newsletter

The collision of art, architecture, longing and loss is never more pertinent than in the new exhibition of work by Cyprien Gaillard at the Sprueth Magers gallery in London. The French-born, Berlin-based Gaillard has made a name for himself chronicling what he calls the 'beauty of failure' (opens in new tab), finding objects that have a lingering folk memory of a particular time or place, re-imagining the casually discarded detritus of modern life.
Gaillard's work is shown alongside a selection of Morris Louis' Color Field paintings, chromatically rich images from the early days of American abstraction that seem to tally with his own collages, abstractions and repurposings. Gaillard has also used the late American artist's life as a jumping off point for his work, creating rubbings of manhole covers from Louis' home city of Baltimore, then blending the results with covers from Washington, creating a strange, ad-hoc fusion of different times and spaces.
'Fence (after Owen Luder)' is the exhibition's centrepiece, a fragment of a once mighty concrete icon placed reverentially on a column in the gallery, crushed and abstracted by the demolition of the structure that surrounded it, the Trinity Square car park in Gateshead. For Gaillard, Luder is emblematic of the travails of post war modern architecture (opens in new tab). The British architect's practice was unashamedly modern, yet the forms and buildings that resulted from his concrete aesthetic were frequently pilloried for being antagonistic and pugilistic, a visual affront to the existing streetscape. Where Luder and his supporters (who, it must be said, were mostly architects as well) saw idiosyncratic delight in the playful arrangement of forms, beautiful shuttering, elegant proportions and dramatic changes in scale, detractors saw rain soaked, lumpen brutalism.
Trinity Square was demolished in 2010 (opens in new tab), while one of Luder's earlier masterpieces, the fantastically complex Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth (opens in new tab), gave way to the bulldozers in 2004. It's safe to say that Luder's lost oeuvre is still unmissed by the general population, implying that brutalism is a genre doomed to eventual obscurity. Gaillard's work embraces these contradictions between utopian modernism and failed reality, the romance of absence and the beauty they leave behind in memory.
'Fence (after Owen Luder)',2013, is the exhibition's centrepiece, placed reverentially on a column in the gallery
The piece is a bronze replica of a security structure that Gaillard salvaged from British architect Owen Luder's Trinity Square car park in Gateshead (pictured), which was demolished in 2010
A close-up of 'Fence (after Owen Luder)'
Gaillard's work is shown alongside a selection of Louis' Color Field paintings on the walls, chromatically rich images from the early days of American abstraction that seem to tally with his own collages, abstractions and repurposings (pictured in the foreground)
A close-up look at Gaillard's collages made from pages of reconstructed National Geographic magazines, displayed in vitrines in the centre of the gallery
Installation view of 'From Wings to Fins'
ADDRESS
Sprueth Magers London (opens in new tab)
7A Grafton Street
London W1S 4EJ
VIEW GOOGLE MAPS (opens in new tab)
Jonathan Bell has written for Wallpaper* magazine since 1999, covering everything from architecture and transport design to books, tech and graphic design. He is now the magazine’s Transport and Technology Editor. Jonathan has written and edited 15 books, including Concept Car Design, 21st Century House, and The New Modern House. He is also the host of Wallpaper’s first podcast.
-
The best art gifts for the creative in your life
With Valentine's Day 2023 on the horizon, get inspired with our ongoing guide to the best art gifts
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Published
-
Artist Mickalene Thomas creates the set for Dior’s Josephine Baker-inspired couture show
American artist Mickalene Thomas collaborated with Maria Grazia Chiuri on the scenography for the designer’s latest Dior haute couture show in a celebration of pioneering Black women
By Jack Moss • Published
-
2023 USA Fellows revealed, including these inspiring designers and architects
United States Artists announces its 2023 USA Fellows, including these designers and architects making a difference
By Martha Elliott • Published
-
Anne Imhof ‘Avatar II’ review: a psychological thriller to make you wince and wonder
German artist Anne Imhof’s ‘Avatar II’ exhibition at London’s Sprüth Magers is a compelling, uncanny probing of contemporary culture, reality and artifice
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Last updated
-
Cao Fei’s dystopian fantasies fuse art and technology
Chinese artist Cao Fei’s dystopian art tackles themes such as the automation of labour, hyper-capitalism and the effect of a global pandemic. Having just completed her first major solo show in Beijing, the prolific winner of the 2021 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize is going global, with her retro-futuristic take on contemporary life now the subject of exhibitions from Los Angeles to Rome, and a 20-page portfolio for Wallpaper*
By Daven Wu • Last updated
-
Thomas Demand: artificiality, nature and Azzedine Alaïa
At Sprüth Magers London, German sculptor and photographer Thomas Demand explores the tensions between artificiality and nature, and steps inside the atelier of legendary Tunisian couturier Azzedine Alaïa
By Harriet Lloyd-Smith • Last updated
-
A bold social commentary since the 1970s, Barbara Kruger’s art is as incisive as ever
For our December 2010 Entertaining Issue (W*141), we sat down with American conceptual artist Barbara Kruger to discuss message-making, the art market, and her agitprop commentaries on gender, race, consumerism, identity and more
By Mayer Rus • Last updated
-
Gary Hume keeps it in the family at Sprüth Magers’ newly revamped London gallery
By Charlotte Jansen • Last updated
-
Common scents: Pamela Rosenkranz’s latest exhibition is right on the nose
By Charlotte Jansen • Last updated
-
Michail Pirgelis and David Ostrowski's visual affinities come into focus
By Elly Parsons • Last updated
-
Frieze London 2016 takes a nostalgic turn, as galleries look back to the Nineties
By Emma O'Kelly • Last updated