Towner
Mircea Cantor is a Romanian artist whose work is attracting increasing international attention. He works in a wide variety of media including video, photography and installation and investigates the conventions of image and object making. He often uses multi-sensory techniques that help amplify the emotional resonance of the work. For his exhibition at Modern Art Oxford, Cantor explored the theme of uncertainty. Wood carvings in a forest and a flying carpet hand-woven with figures of angels and aeroplanes are some of the elements used by Cantor to prompt reflections on worlds within worlds and the relative notion of freedom and its limitations.
Towner reopened in 2009 following a major £8.5million refurbishment with Rick Mather Architect. The collection has over 4,000 works of art by historic, modern and contemporary artists. It is best known for its modern British art, with work by Christopher Wood, Edward Bawden, Henry Moore, Paul Nash, Victor Pasmore, Alfred Wallis and Duncan Grant and has the largest and most significant body of work by Eric Ravilious. The Towner’s involvement in the Contemporary Art Society’s Special Collections Scheme helped provide a particular focus for contemporary acquisitions on the theme of landscape, developing an existing strength in their historic collection. Works purchased as that time by artists such as Olafur Eliason, Tacita Dean and Anya Gallacio along with more recent purchases from Wolfgang Tillmans provide a strong conceptual framework for Hiatus .
More about the 3 Series:
The 3 Series is a partnership between Modern Art Oxford, Arnolfini, Bristol and Camden Arts Centre, London. Over three years, three artists, Mircea Cantor, Johanna Billing and Kerry Tribe, have been commissioned to create substantial new bodies of work for exhibition in each of the three galleries. As a culmination to this major partnerhip initiative, new work by each artists has been presented to a regional public collection through the Contemporary Art Society.