Rachel Whiteread
Biography
Rachel Whiteread was born in London in 1963. She studied painting at Brighton Polytechnic (1982-85) and sculpture at the Slade School of Art, University College, London (1985-87). Whiteread's first solo exhibition was held at the Carlyle Gallery, London, in 1988, the year after she graduated. The first monumental sculpture that brought her recognition was Ghost (1990), a plaster cast of the interior space of an ordinary room, shown at the Chisenhale Gallery, London. Details of the fireplace with its gas fire, door and window impressions and traces of wallpaper and flakes of colour from the paintwork held the memory of the place. Works that followed included casts of the outer spaces of mattresses and mortuary slabs, inner spaces of hot-water bottles, undersides of tables and chairs, the spaces beneath floorboards and impressions of books on shelves. The casts evoke absence and hence death and established Whiteread as an artist whose work was different, and pertinent in its simplicity and directness. Her casts are executed in a variety of materials - plaster, resin, rubber and plastics, in quiet monochrome and jewel-like colour, depending on the medium. With her unique work Whiteread became the first woman to win the Turner prize in 1993.
Download PDFPress
A Matter of Form, San Francisco Chronicle Download PDF (34 K)
Designers for a Day: Sculptors Take a Turn, New York Times Download PDF (67 K)
Touching the Void – Empty Spaces are Artist's Blank Slate, San Francisco Chronicle Download PDF (75 K)
Selected Works
Rachel Whiteread Cabinet VIII, 2007 1 metal cupboard and 55 plaster units 17 3/4 x 18 1/2 x 17 1/2 inches
Rachel Whiteread IN OUT - IX, 2004 mixed media 78 1/5 x 35 4/5 x 3 9/10 inches
Rachel Whiteread Untitled (On,Off), 2001 1 1/8 x 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 inches stainless steel edition of 24, 5/24