British Artist Conrad Shawcross (B. 1977) first came to public attention for his piece 'Nervous System' in 2003, which went on to be shown at the Saatchi Gallery 'New Blood' exhibition in 2004. Since then his work has been internationally exhibited and is included in important private and museum collections around the world. Shawcross is best known for his sculpture inspired by the relationship between philosophy, physics, and mathematics.
In recent years, Shawcross has developed the scale of his practice, taking on architectural spaces with sculptures that explore the borders of geometry, philosophy, physics and metaphysics.'Timepiece' was an installation commission for the Roundhouse in 2013 in which Shawcross transformed the iconic main space of this historic London building into a vast timekeeping device.
In 2015, the artist created a new series of permanent sculptures entitled; 'Three Perpetual Chords'. The work was unveiled in Dulwich Park, London, following a commission by Southark Council to replace works by Barbara Hepworth that were stolen in 2011. In the same year the artist also unveiled a new site-specific installation for the Royal Academy's Annenberg Courtyard as part of the Summer Exhibition. The immersive installation consisted of five steel, cloud-like forms comprised of thousands of tetrahedrons, standing over six metres high and weighing five tonnes each.
In 2019 Conrad’s work 'Paradigm – B (Structural)' was installed in the Jardin Arnaud Beltrame in Paris to celebrate the grand opening of Galerie Marguo – a new gallery in Paris’s historical Le Marais district. This initiative was made in collaboration with the artist and Château La Coste, who included this work in 'Escalations', a solo exhibition by Shawcross in the summer of 2020.
In recent years, Shawcross has had a number of solo exhibitions including 'Stacks, Folds and Interference' at Tucci Russo, 'Torre Pellice', Itay, 2016, 'Wilton Crescent', Belgravia, London, 2020, 'Escalations, and ‘After the Explosion, Before the Collapse' at Victoria Miro Mayfair, London which coincide with the opening of the La Biennale di Venezia 2020.
More recently, in October 2021 Shawcross announced the opening of Beacons on the East Cliff in Ramsgate, UK - a large-scale sculptural installation in conjunction with Turner Contemporary. Conrad was also included in the gallery's most recent exhibition 'Systems and Intervals' at Louisa Guinness Gallery, London as part of a curated selection of artist jewellery.
Loop System Quintet, 2005. Image courtesy of the artist