
Leo Fitzmaurice, Feeling the Squeeze, crushed cans, shelving, 2024
Upcycle is a new exhibition which reveals what happens when eight artists take ordinary packaging and elevate it. Using plenty of wit and a dash of deception, the artists demonstrate how something utterly mundane can be completely transformed through upcycling. With implications for recycling, consumerism, sustainability and other existential matters, this playful show is hosted by Soho Housing Association’s Great Pulteney Street Gallery and curated by Paul Carey-Kent.
In ‘Upcycle’ eight artists look at packaging, demonstrating how something so mundane can become elevated – artistically upcycled, if you like. Cue implications for recycling, consumerism, sustainability and other existential matters, as well as plenty of wit.
How does such a quotidian source relate to artistic epiphany? Gavin Turk presents cartons à la Morandi and used lighters à la Hirst; Leo Fitzmaurice maxes out the crushed Coca Cola can and proposes that we see supermarket bags as paintings; Sarah Pettitt’s tenderly provisional constructions have an unassertive presence consistent with much of her material coming from left-overs; and Shane Bradford employs the surprisingly elaborate components of crates used for home deliveries to print paintings titled with the faintly absurd claims of supermarket taglines.
Another question to ask is: are we seeing packing repurposed, or something else pretending to be packaging? Thus, Marisa Culatto turns paper tape from packing aid to art material, while Susan Collis’s work seems to be what it should have been wrapped in; and Sam Hodge prints directly from unfolded cardboard boxes to arrive at surprising suggestions, whereas Russell Herron makes cardboard portraits which, in a double-take contrast, involve no cardboard.
UPCYCLE runs 19 Feb – 1 March at GPS Gallery , 36 Great Pulteney Street, Soho - curated by Paul Carey-Kent, and featuring Gavin Turk, Leo Fitzmaurice, Marisa Culatto, Russell Herron, Sam Hodge, Sarah Pettitt, Shane Bradford and Susan Collis