GALERIE THOMAS SCHULTE

Allan MCCOLLUM PRESS RELEASE

2006

2006

Shapes
September 29ï¿½November 11, 2006

On Friday, September 29, Galerie Thomas Schulte presents the first individual exhibition in its new space at Charlottenstraï¿½e 24: the international premiere of Allan McCollum's new group of works, Shapes.

Allan McCollum was born in California in 1944, and lives and works in New York. With his extremely incisive works, he has become one of the most outstanding American artists of his time.

His works can be seen in the world's best and most important collections. MOMA alone has three large work groups by the artist in its collection. McCollum has also been honored with numerous international museum exhibitions and catalogues, including recent exhibitions at Museum Haus Esters/Haus Lange, Krefeld, Kunstverein fï¿½r die Rheinlande und Westfalen in Dï¿½sseldorf, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Frankfurt's Portikus, and Kunsthalle Zurich.

His artistic work is defined by his occupation with the phenomenon of individuality and the mass as a sociological and artistic problem of defining
identity. His works are often characterized by an extreme accumulation of individual pieces, such as drawings or sculptures. Certainly the most well-known example of this are his Plaster Surrogates.

The Shapes Project marks for McCollum a new beginning ï¿½ also within the continued experimenting in a greater distribution of art works. The series is based on a system developed by the artist of combinable silhouettes. He can thus produce millions of combinations and ultimately match an individual "shape" to each living person.

Each Shape is used only once. However, there could be hundreds of ways to use it: from the simplest handicraft project to the most sophisticated industrially manufactured object and from the poorest to the most expensive materials used.

For the project's Berlin premiere, a total of thirty sculptures have been made of Corian, giving them the appearance of marble objects. In addition, around 500 framed one-of-a-kind prints will be shown.