The Museum of Classical Archaeology, Cambridge, hosts RECASTING, an exhibition exploring the interface between contemporary art and the classical traditional in our atmospheric Cast Gallery. The exhibition spans different materials and formats (painting, sculpture, installation, video, and drawing), taking the form of a series of interventions amongst the casts. It features work by Maggi Hambling, Matthew Darbyshire, REILLY and others. Through a series of juxtapositions and pairings, RECASTING aims to provoke conversations between the classical past and the art of the present.
The exhibition has been curated by Ruth Allen and James Cahill, graduate researchers in the Faculty of Classics.
RECASTING brings together works by contemporary artists who explore, embrace, or challenge the classical artistic tradition. Spanning different materials and formats – painting, sculpture, installation, video, and drawing – the exhibition takes the form of a series of interventions throughout the museum’s Cast Gallery. Artworks will be displayed among the plaster casts of the antique which are on permanent view, in order to reveal some of the contrasts and continuities that define art’s ongoing relationship with the classical past.
Through a series of pairings and juxtapositions, alternately dramatic and understated, RECASTING aims to provoke conversations between the classical tradition and the art of the present. Casting is examined as a mode of reproduction, but equally as a metaphor for classical reception.
The Artists
Paul Allen (b.1952) is a Brighton-based illustrator whose work has featured in many fields, including advertising, design, publishing, and the music industry.
Matthew Darbyshire (b.1977, Cambridge) graduated from the Slade in 2000 and the Royal Academy in 2005. His work has featured in exhibitions around the world, from Barcelona to Turin to Yorkshire.
Tom de Freston (b.1983) is currently Cultural Fellow at University of Birmingham and Artistic Director at Medicine Unboxed.
Maggi Hambling (b.1945) was was the National Gallery’s first Artist in Residence and her major solo exhibitions include the National Gallery, London (2014), State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (2013), Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (2010), Yale Center for British Art (1991), and the Serpentine Gallery, London (1987). Hambling’s public sculptures include Scallop (2003), which is permanently sited on Aldeburgh beach, Suffolk.
Paul Kindersley (b.1985, Cambridge) graduated from Chelsea College of Art in 2009. His drawings have featured online and in exhibitions in London and Berlin.
Rosie O’Grady (b.1990) graduated from Glasgow School of Art and University of Glasgow in 2015, and from Glasgow School of Art in 2013. Her work has featured in exhibitions in the UK and USA.
REILLY (b.1969) graduated from the Royal College of Art in 1993. His work has featured in campaigns for top brands, including Coca Cola, Vogue and Nike, and in magazines.
The Curators
RECASTING is curated by Ruth Allen and James Cahill, graduate researchers in the Faculty of Classics. Ruth is a Roman art historian, currently working on the iconography of engraved Roman gemstones. James’s research focuses on the relationship between contemporary visual art and Greco-Roman art and mythology. He regularly contributes to art magazines and periodicals.