John Gerrard Participating in the 2019 Okayama Art Summit

Works by John Gerrard are currently on view in the 2019 Okayama Art Summit in Okayama City, Japan. Held once every three years, the Okayama Art Summit is a triennial exhibition of contemporary art. This year, with Pierre Huyghe taking the reins as artistic director, the Summit is bringing works by nineteen international artists to various historical and cultural sites near Okayama Castle and Okayama Korakuen Garden for two months from September 27–November, 24 2019. The event offers visitors the opportunity not only to see exciting exhibits but also to experience the thought processes of the artists, enabling a unique interaction with art that transcends time and space̶, all from the historic city of Okayama.

A recent addition to Pace Gallery, Gerrard produces simulation which explores structures of power and networks of energy that have coincided with the expansion of human endeavor in the past century. The works often feature geographically isolated locations such as the agrarian American Great Plains, the Mojave Desert’s solar plant, remote reaches of the Gobi Desert, or sites of military exercises in Djibouti. These simulations are non-durational, rendered in real time the programmed software unfolds over the course of annual cycles. In these works, documentary foundations find fictional realizations which examine scientific experimentation, industry, sustainability, and conditions of temporality.

Recent major presentations of Gerrard's work include singular works presented outdoors on LED walls at Somerset House, London in 2017; LACMA, Los Angeles in 2018 and in Palm Springs as part of Desert X in 2019. Recent exhibitions include: “Long March Project: Building Code Violations III - Special Economic Zone”, Long March Space, Beijing, China (2018); “Manifesta 12 - The Planetary Garden. Cultivating Coexistence”, Palermo, Italy (2018); “Electricity”, Wellcome Collection, London, England (2017); “John Gerrard: Power, Play”, Ullens Centre for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2016); “Exercise”, Kunsthalle Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany (2015); “Solar Reverse”, Lincoln Center in association with the Public Art Fund, New York NY (2014). Forthcoming exhibitions include Galway International Arts Festival (2020), and Gwangju Biennale (2020).

For more information on the exhibition, please visit the Okayama Art Summit's (opens in a new window) website.