Graham Fagen: Scotland + Venice 2015

Collateral Event of the 56th International Art Exhibition - la Biennale di Venezia

Graham Fagen will represent Scotland at the 56th International Art Exhibition, the Venice Biennale, running from 9 May to 22 November 2015, in a solo presentation commissioned and curated by Hospitalfield, Arbroath. Press and professional opening dates are 6 to 8 May 2015.

Graham Fagen is one of the UK’s foremost contemporary artists. His work mixes media and crosses continents; combining video, performance, photography, and sculpture with text and music. His recurring artistic themes include plants, journeys, poetry and popular song as a means to focus on personal and shared experience and identity. His works offer a clear-sighted perspective on the powerful forces that shape our lives.

Palazzo Fontana is a new location for Scotland’s presentation at the Venice Biennale and this will be the first time that the palazzo has been used for the Biennale. Graham Fagen will present an entirely new body of work devised for the rooms of this historic and atmospheric palazzo.

Built at the end of the 16th century by pupils of the leading Renaissance architect Jacopo Sansovino, the palazzo is centrally located on the Grand Canal in the Cannaregio district of Venice; only a short walk from the Ca’ D’Oro vaporetto, and accessible on foot from La Strada Nuova.

Hospitalfield Arts’ proposal to commission Graham Fagen, and to curate a new exhibition for the Venice Biennale 2015, was selected by the Scotland + Venice Partnership in early 2014.
Hospitalfield Arts is committed to supporting artists and others working predominantly within the visual arts through its core programme of residencies and new commissions. The programme is accommodated within one of Scotland’s most important historic houses which from 1890 was conceived as one of the first art schools in the country. The house and estate on the rural east coast of Scotland, were left in trust by artist Patrick Allan-Fraser (1813-1890). Hospitalfield holds a core collection of 18th and 19th century art, painting, drawing, sculpture and furniture and has architecture and finely crafted interiors that were commissioned in the mid 19th century, building upon a far earlier foundation dating back to the 12th century.

The collaboration with Graham Fagen and the presentation of his work in Venice presents a unique opportunity to extend and platform Hospitalfield’s work in an international context. www.hospitalfield.org.uk

On the occasion of the exhibition a catalogue will be published documenting the new body of work, and providing a range of insights/perspectives on the development of Graham Fagen’s practice, featuring new texts by: Katrina Brown; Penelope Curtis; and Louise Welsh with an introduction by Lucy Byatt, Director of Hospitalfield. The publication will be available to buy online from May 2015.

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