Gagosian, New York, is pleased to present “Birth Machine Baby“, an exhibition curated by Harmony Korine, featuring works by H. R. Giger and Mark Prent.
In this exhibition, Korine pairs eerie humanoid figures by Giger — whose name has been cemented in Hollywood history for his visual effects and design work on the Alien film franchise — with sculptures by Prent, a Canadian artist whose grotesque and provocative depictions of the human body were greatly admired by Giger himself. Despite the divergences in Giger’s and Prent’s chosen styles and mediums, both artists’ interests lie in coaxing out latent fantastical forms from the contours of the human body.
Depicting subject matter gleaned from the depths of his psychic anxieties, Giger’s stylized sculptures merge writhing, skeletal organisms with elegant metallic features, coalescing in his signature “biomechanical” style. Although Giger was best known for designing the iconic extraterrestrial Xenomorph from Alien (1979), his other works display the full range of his artistic influences, which span from ancient Egyptian statuary to twentieth-century artists such as Salvador Dalí and Francis Bacon.
Displaying a mastery of hyperrealistic sculptural techniques, Prent’s uncanny fiberglass and resin sculptures simultaneously shock and enthrall. His art — which has remained fundamentally grounded in the human form since the 1970s — melds familiar anatomies with bizarre, animalistic limbs and features, provoking a visceral process of recognition and emotional connection in the beholder. Prent’s work challenges our understanding of the body as we know it, creating haunting, chimerical hybrids that elicit innovative visual dialogues when juxtaposed with Giger’s biomechanical creations.
BIRTH MACHINE BABY
H. R. Giger and Mark Prent | Curated by Harmony Korine
05.11.2019 – 21.12.2019
Discover: gagosian.com
