For Art Basel Miami Beach 2019, the LOEWE FOUNDATION presents the fifth exhibition in its Chance Encounters series, bringing together artists from various disciplines in unexpected conversations. This year British artist Hilary Lloyd presents a major site-specific textile, sound and video installation that will engage in dialogue with the monumental 18th-century Portuguese granary permanently installed in the LOEWE’s Miami store. Large-scale ceramic sculptures by Ewen Henderson will also occupy the space.
‘The Chance Encounters exhibitions are an opportunity to create conversations across time, between artists whose work resonates strongly with my own creative approach’ says Jonathan Anderson, Creative Director of LOEWE. ‘Hilary Lloyd’s work is perfectly attuned to the contemporary moment and the way in which we engage with the visual world around us. It will stage a striking dialogue with Ewen Henderson’s bold materially-rich work.’
Hilary Lloyd lives and works in London. For almost 30 years Lloyd has been working with film and video within sculptural installations. The idiosyncratic way in which her films are shot — making use of repetitive movements, jump cuts and sweeps — which often verge on the abstract, conjure both her own restless gaze and the experience of increasing speed that characterizes the way in which we consume images today. In recent years the technological apparatus foregrounded as part of her installations, block monitors and screens, have been accompanied by scatter-like installations incorporating curtains, frames and other set-like objects, that play with the idea of the space around the films being activated by the viewer. These installations reveal her interests in architecture, fashion, textiles and digital space.
For the exhibition, Lloyd will transform LOEWE’s Miami store through interventions of color and textiles. Monitors will be presented throughout the space, on which she will present a new series of films shot in and around her studio in the Thamesmead area of London where her studio is located.
In and amongst Lloyd’s installation will be several large-scale ceramic sculptures by Ewen Henderson – one of Britain’s most esteemed artists working with clay. Henderson studied under Hans Coper and Lucie Rie at the Camberwell School of Art in 1968 and was part of an illustrious generation of potters alongside Gordon Baldwin, Gillian Lowndes and Ian Godfrey, who explored a new sculptural language for ceramics. While often working with vessel forms and frequently creating vases and tea bowls, Henderson’s commitment to hand-building allowed him to freely manipulate the clay, often pushing his forms towards complete abstraction. Inspired by the material nature of clay itself, Henderson was interested in exploring ideas of the elemental and geological; his use of roughly textured surfaces and layered color often resembles the stratified nature of rock or earth. His totemic works which will be presented as part of the exhibition also evidence his interest in Neolithic and ancient art, embracing the timeless quality of clay as one of the fundamental materials used by humankind.
