Piers Secunda
PIERS SECUNDA
Piers Secunda – Works available on Artsy (link)
Piers Secunda was born in London, 1976, and lives and works in London and New York. He studied painting at Chelsea College of Art in London. Secunda has developed a studio practice using paint in a sculptural manner, rejecting the limitations imposed by the canvas. His intensive research based work, split into distinctly separate groups, explores the driving forces of both passive and aggressive human needs: examining the effects of violent geopolitics on both people and culture, by moulding bullet and bomb damage from war zones and the sites of historic conflicts, to make works. And recording energy history using crude oil as a printing medium, to examine post industrial revolution developments, both cultural and technological, which define our world today.
Secunda’s aim in life as an artist is to make records of the time in which he lives. Making a record of the violent attempts by ISIS (the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) to erase our collective cultural heritage in the Middle East is a matter of real importance and urgency to him. For this reason he traveled to the front line of the war against ISIS in Iraq in 2015 to cast ISIS bullet holes.
“Occasionally a moment occurs in which it is worth taking the risk to travel to a dangerous place. This was one such moment.”
In Art Historical terms, Secunda’s work reminds of Picasso’s “Guernica” and Goya’s “Los Desastres de la Guerra” but in a Postmodern minimalist way.
The Ashmolean Museum “Owning the Past : Mesopotamia to Iraq” – A large installation commissioned by the Ashmolean Museum for their exhibition
https://www.ashmolean.org/event/owning-the-past
Christie’s London Post War and Contemporary Art: Recent Sale of a work by Piers Secunda
https://www.christies.com/LotFinder/lot_details.aspx?intObjectID=6285843
The Art Newspaper: Drawing with the ashes of ISIS – Piers Secunda on the art of destruction
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/interview/piers-secunda-on-the-art-of-destruction
The Art Newspaper: ISIS Bullet Hole Paintings at Iraqi Ambassador’s private residence
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/art-made-from-isis-bullet-holes-go-on-show-for-first-joint-project-between-iraq-and-kurdistan-in-the-uk
The Independent: Recent press coverage
http://www.independent.co.uk/topic/piers-secunda
Watch the 2 minute Puzzle Ball film:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8Y1EPdFe6Y&feature=youtu.be
Or the 1 and a half minute film about the Crude Oil Paintings:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NnKaS3kIAw
Education
1995-1998 BA Painting, Chelsea College Of Art, London
1994-1995 Foundation, Surrey Institute Of Art, Farnham
Select Exhibitions
2017 ISIS Bullet Hole Paintings. 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, New York (Solo)
2016 Pergamon Works. New York University, New York (Solo show)
2016 Engines and Panoramas. Bermondsey Project Space, London. (Solo show +Catalogue)
2015 Raw: Word And Image. Space 776, Brooklyn, New York
2015 Community Hospital. WhyWhyArt. Shanghai
2015 Tribeca Film Festival. Spring Studios, New York (work donated as best documentary award)
2015 Archived Oil. David Krut Projects, New York. (Solo show)
2014 The Rise Of Oil. Jessica Carlisle Gallery, London. (Solo show)
2014 The Social Bases of Abstraction. UpDown Gallery, Ramsgate. Curated by Ben Weidel Kaufmann
2014 Art Asia in London Fair. Guus Roell Fine Art, Maastricht
2014 War Stories. William Holman Gallery, NYC. Curated by Anthony Haden-Guest
2014 Art14. UpDown Gallery, Olympia, London
2013 One. UpDown Gallery, Ramsgate
2013 Winter Exhibition. Small Works Gallery, Brisbane, Australia
2013 Piers Secunda: A Retrospective. UpDown Gallery, Ramsgate (Retrospective show +Catalogue)
2013 Taliban Paintings. Kuub Kulture Space, Utrecht, Holland. (Solo show)
2013 W-A-R. Jacob’s Island Gallery, London
2013 Let Me Introduce… UpDown Gallery, Ramsgate
2012 Black Gold. Vegas Gallery, London
2012 The Materiality of Paint. Fine Art Society, London
2012 Taliban Bullet Holes. Small Works Brisbane, Australia (Solo show)
2012 Piers Secunda. Kuub Kulture Space, Utrecht, Holland (Solo show)
2012 L&M Arts. Hong Kong Fair
2012 Taliban Bullet Holes. YK Art, Moganshan Rd, Shanghai (Solo show)
2012 Paradox, The Limits of Liberty. Castrum Peregrini, Amsterdam
2012 No One To Hear You Scream. Saamlung Gallery, Hong Kong
2012 Immortal Nature. Edel Assanti, London. Curated by Gordon Cheung
2011 Taliban Reliefs and Crude Oil Silkscreens. Aubin Gallery, London (Solo show). (Catalogue)
2011 Signal8. Cat Street Gallery, Hong Kong
2011 The Great Alonso. Primo Alonso Gallery, London
2011 The Nature of change: Hybridity and Mutation. HRL Contemporary, London (Catalogue)
2011 Equisite Corpse. Zero Ten Gallery, London
2010 The City Folding Out. Yong Kang Lu Art, Shanghai
2010 Uber Collision: Epic Fail. Idea Generation, London
2010 The Earth Draws It. Zero10 Gallery, London (Solo show)
2010 Mob Remedies. Gallery Primo Alonso, London
2010 Fakirs. Island6, Shanghai, China
2009 Tate The Biscuit. Shoreditch Town Hall, London
2009 Piers Secunda. Island 6, Shanghai, China
2009 Paperview. John Jones, London (curated by Danny Rolph)
2008 The Future Can Wait: New London School, (Catalogue) Truman Brewery, London
2008 Mashups. DACS, London
2008 Counterpoint, British Sculpture Now and Then. Robin Katz Fine Art, London (with Anthony Caro. Eduardo Paolozzi, Conrad Shawcross, Barbara Hepworth etc.)
2008 Space Now. Space, London. (with Yinka Shonibare, Mark Wallinger, Saskia Olde Wolbers, Hew Locke etc.)
2008 Superscope. Lounge Gallery, London
2007 Piers Secunda, Paint Assemblages. Nettie Horn Gallery, London (Solo show)
2007 The Lucifer Effect. Gallery Primo Alonso, London (with Gordon Cheung, Boo Ritson, Anne Hardy etc)
2007 Noel Forster and Piers Secunda: Paintings and Constructions. The University Of The Arts (Catalogue)
2005 Secret. Royal College of Art, London
2005 The Gentle Art of Making Enemies (Catalogue)
2005 Salon Show. Hollow Gallery, London.
2005 Yabadabadoo. Cell Project Space, London.
2003 Paint In 2003. Century Gallery, London. (Catalogue)
2003 10 Selected Works. Vogue House, Conde Nast, London.
2002 Kiosk. The Kiosk Project, London.
2000 Paint! Tivoli Arts Co-Op, Tivoli, New York.
1998 The Temporary Museum. (with Chris Ofili, Gavin Turk, Peter Blake, Richard Long, Bob and Roberta Smith and Cornelia Parker, London). (Catalogue)
1996 Roll On-Roll Off. exhibition inside a Double Deck Bus, touring art museums, London.
1995 August Exhibition. Sotheby’s, London.
1994 Nicholas Thorp Gallery, London.
ARTICLES, REVIEWS, ESSAYS, RADIO BROADCASTS
2012 Vreihijd Magazine (Holland) Shot Into Paint, Catherine Somze
2012 Randian Magazine, No One To Hear You Scream, Christopher Moore
2012 Lust And Found magazine, Piers Secunda, January 2012.
2011 The National, (UAE newspaper) Artist Puts Crude Oil To Use To Explore Materials History, Ben East 7th December 2011
2011 Phaidon website, Piers Secunda’s Art Attack, November 2011
2011 FX Magazine, Taliban Bullet Holes. Anna Lewis
2011 Resonance FM, Taliban Bullet Holes, Half hour discussion broadcast on FM Radio in London, November 2011
2011 The Independent, Piers Secunda’s Taliban Relief Paintings, 15th November
2011 Six Pillars, discussion of the Taliban works. LBC FM radio, London
2011 Time Out Magazine, Hybrids. 3rd March publication
2010 The Independent, Anti Design, Daisy Bowie-Sell 21st September
2010 Real Magazine, Design week and Art, November/December edition
2010 Last FM, Uber Collision Epic Fail, 18th September 2010
2009 CN Review, Fakirs, Kai Pan, published 4th January 2010
2008 ID magazine, Mashups, Nate Lowman
2008 The Future Can Wait: New London School, (Catalogue)
2008 The London Paper, Mashups, August 19
2008 Houston Press “Paydirt: Thames Mudlarks”, Troy Schulze (work illustrated)
2008 Art Monthly “Superscope”, Cherry Smyth, March
2008 Time Out “Rainbow Straightener” Martin Coomer
2008 The Guardian Guide “Rainbow Straightener”
2007 Fash’ N Riot May 2007 Edition (work Illustrated)
2007 Jack Wakefield, Paint Sculpture (press release)
2007 Martin Holman, Piers Secunda: No Tub To A Whale…(catalogue essay)
2007 David Ryan, Noel Forster and Piers Secunda Paintings and Constructions (catalogue)
2003 Dr. Tom Learner, Head Conservator, Tate. Modern Paint (catalogue)
2002 James Bainbridge, Mobile Art, Guardian (work illustrated)
COLLECTIONS
The University For The Arts (Chelsea College Of Art)
Aquest International, New York
The Weston Collection
Findlay Asset Management, New York
Howard Corporation, New York
Gottesman Collection, New York
Moore and Moore Arts
The Museum of Photography, University of Southern California.
McWilliams Collection, Santa Barbara, California
Borsetti Architecture, New York
Katz Fine Art, London
Dr. Michael Jacobs, New York
Sid Bass Collection, Texas
Guy Merison Collection, New York
Russel Toone, London
Ng Family Collection, London
Private Collections in the UK and US