Thom Puckey - ° Bexleyheath, England, 23 May 1948 -lives and works in Amsterdam ( Netherlands )
Influenced early on by the Viennese Actionism movement, was intensely active as a performance artist in the 1970s and early 1980s with his performance art duo Reindeer Work; this trained him in the expressive possibilities of the body, in its relational abilities and in how to render their image. His apprenticeship can still be seen in the artwork he produces today and, especially, in his use of live models for his sculpture. Many long posing sessions are required to establish the position of each figure and during these a great many photographs are taken, snapped from every angle in order to verify the subject's validity and how it will take shape in space. So it follows that the artist treats each model as a true performer in two senses: in that, with her body, she incarnates a living, unexpected form constituting an expressive possibility, and in that she is an actress playing a role, lending her face and body to an otherwise abstract idea. For this exhibition Thom Puckey produced two new sculptures. The taste of anatomical detail, the sometimes aggressive poses doesn't refer culturally to the past; indeed the choice of a “high” material like monochrome Carrara marble is almost subversive with respect to the artist's intention.