A conversation with John Gerrard
Phileas, Opernring 17, Vienna
Tuesday 28 March 2023 at 6.30pm
Our first exhibition in 2023 presented a single, monumental work by the Austrian-based Irish artist John Gerrard. His digital simulation Leaf Work, presented at the Biennale of Sydney in 2022, could be seen day and night at Opernring 17.
In this public conversation with Anna Hugo, Gerrard explained how his complex and layered works were created, the themes that they address, and the possibilities that new technologies might offer to art going forward.
John Gerrard is an internationally acclaimed artist, and a key figure in the development of simulation within contemporary art. His works are virtual worlds created using real-time computer graphics, a technology developed by the military and now used extensively in the video game industry.
He had had solo exhibitions at institutions including the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art (LACMA); Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing; Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Somerset House, London, in association with Channel 4 television; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Lincoln Center, New York, in association with the Public Art Fund; Modern Art Oxford, United Kingdom; and Galway International Arts Festival, Ireland, among others.
Recent group exhibitions include the Okayama Art Summit, Japan; Manifesta 12, Palermo; 13th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea; 23rd Biennale of Sydney, Australia; 11th Shanghai Biennale; Desert X, Palm Springs; and Faking the Real at Kunsthaus Graz, Austria. His work is in the collections of Tate, London; MoMA, New York; SFMOMA, San Francisco; LACMA, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.; Kistefos, Norway; IMMA, Dublin; Borusan Contemporary, Istanbul; and M+, Hong Kong.
Gerrard (born 1974 in Tipperary, Ireland) received a BFA from Oxford University in 1997 and an MFA from the Schoold of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2000. He has a production studio in Vienna and is represented by Pace Gallery.
John Gerrard. Photo: Marcella Ruiz Cruz
The public programme accompanying John Gerrard’s exhibition is kindly supported by Stadt Wien | Kultur.