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Born Oxford England 1971
"The Meaning of Life: The Work of Clement Price-Thomas" In Examples to Follow: Expeditions in Aesthetics and Sustainability, essay by Jane Harris, Exhibition catalogue Published by Haje Cantz 2010
There are times when the biography of an artist shapes the course of his work with prophetic determination. British-born Clement Price-Thomas is one such artist. The son and grandson of two prominent surgeons, Price-Thomas grew up in a kind of mental operating theater, studying anatomy under his father, pouring over surgical instruments designed by his grandfather. In such a world, he understood early on that not only could life turn on a dime, and therein lied its preciousness, but conversely that nature and the human body held “infinite power and invention.” This dual awareness permeated his thinking ever since, defining a quasi-scientific relationship to art in which experimentation, metamorphosis, and cycles of growth and decay become both metaphor and method.
Indeed, Price-Thomas is something of an alchemist at heart. His sculptures and paintings intentionally alter and activate the inherent properties of organic materials like salt, blood, air, mold, bone, and water through the intervention of technology - transformers, explosives, generators. From the beginning, his earliest works were studies in this interdependence, blurring the line between man-made and natural environments, as when he created artificial coral in the Bahamas (1991). Later works continue to merge the synthetic and biological, exemplified by Heart Studies, 2001-05, a series of anatomically shaped hearts formed by neon tubes that are gradually overgrown by crystalline structures of salt.
Of course, Price-Thomas is an artist, not a scientist or a surgeon, and many of his works are phenomenological at root, exploring our perception of consciousness through an intuitive engagement with environment. Serpentine Project, a work-in-progress to be sited on the river Serpentine (Hyde Park, London), presents large-scale circles that appear and disappear on the water’s surface, their visibility determined by weather and light as well as the viewer’s position. Similarly, The Guide, 2008-09, a sculpture whose external form resembles nothing more than a pile of leaves, slowly reveals the unexpected. Rising and falling with the soft, rhythmic pace of a resting heartbeat - an illusion made real through the creation of an artificial breathing rig - it disrupts the viewer’s sense of the ordinary, and like all of Price-Thomas’s work, heightens our awareness of the life force in all of us.
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Selected Awards
2009 ~ Winner: Celeste Italian International Art Prize, Installation and Sculpture in Berlin, Germany
Selected Solo Exhibitions / Installations
2009 ~ 'The Guide', Public Artwork, London, UK
2008 ~ 'The Guide', Public Artwork, NY, USA
2007 ~ 'Whilst You're Sleeping', Public Artwork, NY, USA
2006 ~ 'Featured Artist', Scope Art Fair, Sara Tecchia Gallery, NY, USA
2006 ~ 'Mirror Series', Public Artwork, NY, USA
2004 ~ 'Recent Works', Mother Space, London, UK
2003 ~ '6 of Hearts', Metal House Studio, London, UK
2001 ~ 'Blue Salt Series'Bermondsey High Street Studio, London, UK
1994 ~ 'Spring', Kingston University, London, UK
1994 ~ 'Spring', St. Anne's Church Soho, London, UK
1994 ~ 'Spring', Royal Grammar, Surrey, UK
1993 ~ 'One', Lyndhurst Grove London, UK
1993 ~ 'Watering the Sun', Thames River, London, UK
1992 ~ 'Neon and Lead', Lyndhurst Grove, London, UK
1990 ~ Site-specific installation in Cherokee, Grand Bahamas
Selected Group Exhibitions
2010 ~ 2013 'Zur Nachahmung Empfohlen / Examples to Follow!', Berlin, Gartow, Umweltbundesamt
Dessau, Kunstverein Ingolstadt, Neuer Pfaffenhofener Kunstverein, Städtische Galerie Neuburg an der
Donau, Germany. Following Goethe-Institute in St. Petersburg, Australia, and Athens.
2009 ~ 'Celeste International Art Prize 2009',Winner, Berlin, Germany
2009 ~ 'Inside Out' Bedford Hills Correction Facility, Bedford, NY, USA
2008 ~ 'Its Only Natural' Victory Arts Projects, NY, USA
2007 ~ 'Why Can't We All Just Get Along' Sara Tecchia Roma New York, NY, USA
2006 ~ 'Victory Hall's Annual Painting Show 2006' Victory Hall Cultural Centre, NY, USA
2006 ~ 'Unnaturally Occurring: Salt, Sand, Bronze, Gold” Sara Tecchia Roma New York , NY, USA
2000 ~ 'Recent Paintings' Bermondsey High Street Studio, London, UK
1999 ~ 'Group Show' Bermondsey High Street Studio, London, UK
1998 ~ 'Untitled' Bermondsey High Street Studio, London, UK
1992 ~ 'Top 10 Art Schools Great Britain', Curtain Road Gallery, London, UK
1991 ~ 'The Discerning Eye' Mall Galleries, London, UK
1991 ~ 'Its Going to Work' Portland Rd Studios Kingston, London, UK
1990 ~ 'Breaking and Entering' 100 Royal Hospital Road, Chelsea, London, UK
Selected Bibliography
Enorm 'Hingehen Empfohlen' 2010
Neues Deutschland 'Der Warme Atem von Grunem Gras' 2010
Berliner Morgenpost 'Ein Cent tåglich soll Deutschland retten' 2010
Arte TV 'Zur Nachahmung Empfohlen!' TV Berich 2010
Uferhallen 'Zur Nachahmung Empfohlen!' Style and Tunes Berlin 2010
Freitag.de 'Van Weizen und Wanzen' 2010
Rat fur Nachhaltige Entwicklung 'Interview with Adrienne Goehler' 2010
Finnland.de 'Zur Nachahmung Empfohlen!' 2010
Artist Unite Magazine; editorial May 2006
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