February 4 – 18, 2012
Opening: Saturday, February 4, 2 – 4 p.m.
BAU-XI PHOTO
324 Dundas St. West
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1G5
T: 416.977.0400
E: info@bau-xiphoto.com
www.bau-xiphoto.com
Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5:30, Sun 11-5:30
A continued fascination with the places people construct for the purpose of leisure has led Elliott Wilcox to photograph empty climbing walls for his new series. The artist’s lens transforms these artificial landscapes into beautifully composed abstract works of art.
Wilcox is an accomplished young UK photographer. He was most recently winner of the London International Creative Competition in 2011, a prestigious prize awarded by a jury of art critics, curators and directors from international museums and galleries.
In his previous series, Courts, Wilcox photographed racquet, squash, and traditional Real Tennis courts absent of any games or players. With an interest in “exposing the unnoticed,” Wilcox has focused on the graphic qualities of the open spaces with an emphasis on bold, flat colours and formal, linear structures. The resulting images revision modernist painting traditions in a contemporary scope.
About the Artist: Elliott Wilcox has quickly gained prominence on an international scale. His work caught the attention of Charles Saatchi when the famed collector shortlisted Wilcox for his BBC documentary television show, School of Saatchi. Additionally, his work was selected to be part of the exhibition PRUNE – Abstracting Reality, which included work by Lisa Oppenheim and Thomas Ruff, at Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam (FOAM), guest curated by Kathy Ryan, editor of the New York Times Magazine.
In the past few years, Wilcox has exhibited at Singapore’s first International Photography Festival and was selected for both Catalyst Arts Belfast and the Crane Kalman Gallery showcase exhibitions of Brighton’s Graduates. He has been the recipient of several awards including a Judges Award at the Nikon Discovery Awards, a New York Photo Award in 2009 and the prestigious Lucie Award for the Discovery of the Year at the International Photography Awards. Publications include the Magenta Foundation’s, Flash Forward- Emerging Photographers 2009, the New York Photography Festival and in the New York Photo Awards Annual 2009. Wilcox was also featured in Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam (FOAM) magazine’s Talent issue