British artist Mark Leckey will speak tonight at 7 p.m. at the Hammer Museum as part of the UCLA Department of Art’s guest lecture series.
Though Leckey lives and works in London, he came to Los Angeles in September and will be here as a Hammer artist-in-residence. He has shown his work throughout the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States in several solo and group exhibitions.
“It’s a rare opportunity to have him here in Los Angeles,” said Ali Subotnick, a curator at the Hammer. “He works with video and green screens and talks about the history of images in a really interesting way that resonates with young artists.”
Subotnick said Leckey is distinct from other contemporary artists in the way he brings together different images and creates conversations between objects. In one piece, he seemed to create a dialogue between sound and sculpture, Subotnick said.
“The whole cut-and-paste idea has been around for a long time, but he did it before it was so prevalent on YouTube. He brings together images and sounds you wouldn’t usually hear or see together, in a seamless way.”
In 2008, Leckey won the prestigious Turner Prize, awarded each year for the best contemporary work by a British Artist, for his exhibition “Industrial Light and Magic,” which combines sculpture, film, sound and performance. Leckey’s work is known for juxtaposing elements of high and low culture with everyday life and for mashing together different artistic media into a single work.
Leckey is also known for “performative lectures,” examples of which include his “Cinema-in-the-Round” and “Mark Leckey in the Long Tail.” According to Subotnick, his talk tomorrow will blend elements of both performance and straight lecture, which she said could offer an interesting perspective for American students.