Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Artist of the day, March 7: Conrad Shawcross, British sculptor

Conrad Hartley Pelham Shawcross (1977) is a British artist specializing in mechanical sculptures based on philosophical and scientific ideas. Shawcross is the youngest living member of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Conrad Shawcross uses diverse materials and mediums to create ambitious structural and mechanical installations informed by geometry, philosophy, physics, and metaphysics. Feigning usefulness and theoretical rigor, Shawcross’s enigmatic machine-like installations, rich with scientific references, are filled with paradox, absurdity, and whimsy. In 2011, Shawcross was an artist-in-residence at the Science Museum in London where he created Protomodel, an installation of five projects displayed alongside the museum’s scientific exhibits that paid homage to the museum's mathematics section on his practice, variously referencing models, functions, and instruments

Shawcross has also experimented with ideal geometries and topologies; these constructions are conceived as systems, sometimes modular, sometimes mechanical, which could be theoretically extended infinitely into space. In these and other sculptures, Shawcross pays tribute to some of the great pioneers and analysts, and considers specific moments or figures from the past.

Recently, Shawcross has developed the scale of his practice, taking on architectural spaces with work that combines epic scope and poetic grace. Timepiece, 2013 was a major new commission for the Roundhouse in which Shawcross transformed the iconic main space of this historic London building into a vast timekeeping device. With this work, the artist seeks to turn the familiar clock – with its circular ‘face’ and three ‘hands’ - back into the cosmological, primeval experience it once was.

His work has also been exhibited internationally at institutions including ArtScience Museum, Singapore; IMMA, Dublin; Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; MONA, Tasmania; the Hayward Gallery, London; Tate Britain, London; Musée d’art Contemporain, Lyon; The Saatchi Gallery, London.

© 2018. All images are copyrighted © by Conrad Shawcross. The use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission from the artist is obtained.



Mr Conrad Shawcross


2001, Yarn

2001, Yarn

2002, Measurement and Control for the Infinite

2003, Skelter

2004, Inversal

2004, Winnowing Oar

2005, Continuum

2008, Arrangement 2 a-d

2008, Arrangement 2 a-d

2008, Lattice Cube Sequence

2008, Lattice Cube Sequence detail

2008, Lattice III and IV

2008, Lattice III and IV detail

2008, Lattice V (Basel)

2008, Offcut

2008, Palindrome

2008, Pavilion

2008, Portrait (Thorel)

2009, Axiom 3

2009, Chord

2009, Chord

2009, Slow Arc Inside a Cube IV

2009, Slow Arc Inside a Cube IV

2009, Offcut (Axiom Tower)

2009, Slow Arc Inside a Cube IV

2009, Tetra-Shadow

2009, Time Rule 221 Minutes

2009, Time Rule 221 Minutes

2010, Fraction

2010, The Limit of Everything

2011, Arrangement

2011, Fraction

2011, Harmonic Manifold 1 (5-4)

2011, Lattice Cube Sequence

2011, Lattice VI

2011, limit of everything

2011. (Perimeter Study) Arrangement 1

2011. Skein Cone

2011. The Blind Aesthetic

2012, Canopy Study

2012, Canopy Study

2012, Machina

2012, Pre-Retroscope VIII (Amsterdam Journey)

2013, Lattice VII 

2013, Plosion 1 (Yellow)

2013, Seven Days

2013, The ADA Project

2013, The ADA Project

2013, Timepiece

2015, The Dappled Light of the Sun study

2015, The Dappled Light of the Sun

2015, The Dappled Light of the Sun

2015, Three Perpetual Chord Studies

2015, Three Perpetual Chord Studies

2015, Three Perpetual Chords

2016, Optic Cloak

2016, Optic Cloak



The Interpretation of Movement.

The Interpretation of Movement.

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