Building and Contents - Keith Coventry

18 June – 6 September 2008

Private View: Tuesday 17 June 18.30 – 20.30

London UK – Keith Coventry, one of the UK’s most successful and respected artists, presents Building and Contents at Hiscox Art Projects.  This forthcoming retrospective showcases a selection of Coventry’s paintings from the Hiscox Collection.  The exhibition spans the last ten years of the artist’s career and includes work ranging from Robin Hood Estate (1999) to the most recent addition, Broken Window (2007), which was acquired by the Collection in March this year.

Coventry explores complex social, political and economic ideas throughout his paintings. At first glance, he seems to embrace the aesthetics and ideals of modernism, but on closer inspection it is urban decay, social failure, drug abuse and alienation that provide the subject matter for much of his work.  In this way he critiques these modernist principles whilst also addressing contemporary issues.

Coventry is best known for his white paintings from the 1990s, which were included in the Sensation exhibition (1998) at the Royal Academy and the Brit Art 5 show (2006) at the Saatchi Gallery.  The exhibition at Hiscox Art Projects includes the white painting, Royal Family Portrait (2003), but also draws on works from his Albany, Junk, Estates, Dufy and Broken Windows series.

The Estates Series is inspired by the coloured maps found at the entrance to housing estates and is painted in the geometric abstract style of Russian Suprematism.  With their often-ironic titles, these paintings combine an attractive surface aesthetic with a derelict and decaying subject matter, and comment on the failings of the utopian ideals of modernism.

In the Albany Series, Coventry abandons the earlier irony of the Estates Series to come full circle and embrace the nostalgic way in which we look back on history with ‘rose tinted-glasses’. Quite literally rose in colour, these narrative snapshots portray historical figures that have lived and worked in a famous residence where the artist himself once lived.

The more recent Broken Windows Series portrays this archetypal symbol of urban decay in a style reminiscent of the British Vorticists, Bomberg and Wadsworth, artists whose work celebrated the notion of machine-age progress.

Keith Coventry is one of several British artists Hiscox has collected on a considerable scale in the last four years.

Elliot McDonald, Curator of Hiscox Arts Projects said: “We are creating a diverse collection of work by international artists but it is the contemporary artists right here on our doorstep that we are most proud of.  Coventry is an incredibly important part of the British contemporary art scene and the Collection is deeply enriched by his works.”

Keith Coventry graduated from Chelsea School of Art and Design in 1982, and has had solo exhibitions in the UK, Europe and America. Group exhibitions include Diagrammatic Logic, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, 2007 and Century City, Tate Modern, 2001. He was included in the seminal exhibition of young British art, Sensation, at the Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1997. Coventry’s work is held in important public collections internationally including Tate, London; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Arts Council England, London; British Council, London; and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

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Exhibition Information

Hiscox and Contemporary Art

Hiscox has a long and established association with contemporary art and is well-known for owning, collecting and insuring fine art.  Hiscox was one of the first UK insurers to offer art insurance as a stand-alone insurance class for private collectors, museums and galleries.  Driven by Chairman Robert Hiscox, the company has an impressive contemporary art collection that features over 50 artists including Damien Hirst, Richard Billingham, Marc Quinn, Mat Collishaw, Keith Coventry, Gregory Crewdson, Mark Wallinger and Cecily Brown. The collection is on permanent display in Hiscox offices around the world and is regularly updated.
 
Hiscox Art Projects is a contemporary exhibition space situated within the café of Hiscox’s London office which aims to make contemporary collections and exhibitions readily accessible to those living and working in the City, as well as the wider art community. In addition to this, Hiscox enjoys uncovering and encouraging emerging talent and sponsors degree shows at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris.

For further information, go to http://www.hiscoxartprojects.com/

About Hiscox

Hiscox, headquartered in Bermuda,  is a specialist insurance group listed on the London Stock Exchange. There are three main underwriting parts of the Group – Hiscox Global Markets, Hiscox UK  and Europe,  and Hiscox International.  Hiscox Global Markets underwrites mainly internationally traded business in the London Market – generally large or complex business which needs to be shared with other insurers or needs the international licences of Lloyd’s. Hiscox  UK and Hiscox Europe offer a range of specialist insurance for professionals and business customers, as well as high net worth individuals. Hiscox International includes operations in Bermuda, Guernsey  and USA. Hiscox Insurance Company Ltd, Hiscox Underwriting Ltd, Hiscox ASM Ltd and Hiscox Syndicates Ltd are authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

For further information, visit www.hiscox.com

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