Amikam Toren
Amikam Toren, was born in Israel in 1945. He lives and works in London.
Amikam Toren is a significant figure in British conceptual art, who explores the conceptual and material framework that defines art. Since the 1970s, Toren has been producing artworks that look at the relation between form and content, object and representation, and between the languages of sculpture and painting. With a keen eye for the everyday and overlooked, and an interest in language and the process of interpretation, he scours his own studio and street and antique markets for his materials. His works take shape through rituals of reduction (destruction) and re-construction, exploring the extent to which the processes of making and consuming art can be compounded. Toren’s reductivist approach examines how minimal intervention by the artist can produce a work of profound intellectual rigor and salience. His work is in a poignant dialogue with a compelling variety of international art movements, such as Arte Povera, Minimalism, and Pop.
Amikam Toren is a London-based artist who in his 41-year career has exhibited extensively throughout Europe. Toren held his first public exhibition in London at the ICA in 1974. That exhibition was the first of many that have had a profound influence on generations of artists in the UK. He had solo exhibitions in many of the major national venues including: Serpentine Gallery, London, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Chisenhale Gallery, London, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol, ICA, London, MOT International, Brüssels, Matt’s Gallery, London.
His work has been featured in the Venice Biennale, Guangzhou Biennale, and in Whitechapel Gallery, London as well as Museu do Acude, Rio de Janeiro, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York, de Appel, Amsterdam, Museu do Chiado, Lisbon, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (to mention a few). Among the awards he had received are the John Moores Painting Prize, 2012, and the Jerwood Drawing Prize, London, 2011.
Amikam Toren is represented by Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv; Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London; MOT International, Brussels; Jessica Silverman, San Francisco.
Amikam Toren
Born in 1945, Israel
Lives and works in London
1974 – 76 Founding co-editor Wallpaper
Awards
2012 Bryan Robertson Trust
Solo Exhibitions
2018 Safe City, Matt’s Gallery, London
2018 REPRODUCTIONS, Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
2017 Amikam Toren, FL Gallery, Milan
2016 Palpable: Works from 1973–2002, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco
2015 The End of the World as We Know It (reproductions and mementos), [art seen] projects Nicosia, Cyprus
2014 Neither a Teapot Nor a Painting, MOT, Brussels
2013 Of The Times and Other Historic Works, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco
2013 Reproductions, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2013 Carrots, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
2012 Moving in the Right Direction, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2009 Amikam Toren – Carrots & Refreshments, Noga Gallery, Tel Aviv
2008 Carrots, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2006 Narrative painting #1, A61, Köln
2006 Ten Last Drawings, The Room, London
2006 Received Wisdom, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2005 Mythomania, The Metropole Galleries Folkstone, Kent
2005 Plan B, Noga Gallery, Tel Aviv
2005 Amikam Toren, John Frankland, Matt’s Gallery, London
2004 Picnic, t1 + 2artspace, London
2004 Clouds in Trousers, ARTLAB 29 at Imperial College, London
2003 Golem, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2002 Bluebeard, Jeffrey Charles Gallery, London
1999 Bluebeard, Minerva-Bar gallery, Tel-Aviv
1999 Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie, Paris
1998 Armchair Paintings 1989-1998, Minerva-Bar gallery, Tel-Aviv
1997 Hand in Glove, Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie, Paris
1996 Three Takes, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
1993 Textes, Gabrielle Maubrie, Paris
1993 Galerie Carstens, Berlin
1993 Harry Zellweger, Basel
1991 Harry Zellweger, Basel
1991 Galerie Gabrielle Maubrie, Paris
1991 Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
1991 Amikam Toren, Chisenhale Gallery, London
1991 Amikam Toren, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
1990 Amikam Toren, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (cat.)
1989 Safety Regulation Painting No.6, Victoria Miro, London
1989 Rotterdam Kunststichtung, Rotterdam
1989 Stacks, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
1987 Pidgin Paintings, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London (cat., Patricia Bickers, ill.)
1985 Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
1985 Subverting … a temporary edition, Camerawork, London
1984 Actualities, Matt’s Gallery, London (cat., David Coxhead, ill.)
1983 Neither a tree nor a picture, Galeria Akumulatory, Poznan
1983 Representations, Lewis Johnstone Gallery, London
1982 Lewis Johnstone Gallery, London
1981 Bluff and double bluff, Matt’s Gallery, London
1981 Mirroring, Lewis Johnstone Gallery, London
1981 If painting then…, Riverside Studios, London
1979 The Commercial Show, Barry Barker Ltd, London
1979 Replacing, ICA, London (cat., Sarah Kent, ill.)
1977 Simple Fractions, House Gallery, London
1976 Serpentine Gallery, London
1975 Urban Landscape Exchange, GLAA, London
1973 Annely Juda Fine Art, London
1968 Goldberg Gallery, Edinburgh Festival
1967 Maserik Gallery, Tel Aviv
Group Exhibitions
2019 25 Years to Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
2018 Kinship: Celebrating 10 Years of Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco
2018 A Simple Fraction, Doyers, New York
2018 Kinship, Jessica Silverman Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2018 Erotic Salon, Noga Gallery of Contemporary Art, Tel Aviv
2016 Essex Road III, Tinytype Gallery, London
2016 Blue Beard, Piper Keys, London
2015 Unorthodox, Jewish Museum, New York
2015 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2015 Artists for Ikon, 50th Anniversary, Ikon Gallery, UK
2014 Waywords of Seeing, Frac Ile-de-France, Le Plateau, Paris
2014 3A Project: Abstraction – Absorbtion – Attribution, Bodson Gallery, Brussells
2013 Four Corners of the World, Hite Foundation, Korea
2013 Une Exposition Sans Texts (An Exhibition without texts), Organised by 2013 Jeu de Paume at Maison d’art Bernard Anthonioz, Paris
2013 Paintings, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2012 The 4th Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, China
2012 The London Open, Whitechapel Gallery, London
2012 Common Ground, Biennale Architettura 2012, Venice
2012 Jerwood Draawing Prize 2012, Jerwood Space, London
2012 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Art, London
2012 Summer Exhibition, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2012 Homenagem, Museu do Acude, Rio de Janeiro
2012 One and One and One, Café Gallery, London
2012 Collaborators, Room, London
2011 Ill Fares The Land, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2011 Jerwood Drawing Prize, London
2011 Everyday, Ruskin Gallery, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge
2011 Smokefall, Tintype, London
2011 One Another, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2011 Abstraction, NO:ID Gallery at The Room, London
2010 No New Thing Under the Sun, Royal Academy of Arts, London
2010 Re-make/Re-model, The National Glass Centre, Sunderland
2010 Inside Outsider Language, Waterside Project Space, London
2010 Face History, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2010 The Way We Do Art Now, Selected by Pavel Büchler, Tanya Leighton Gallery, Berlin
2010 Summer Exhibition, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2009 Le chant de la carpe, Parc Saint Léger, Burgundy
2009 Ecosfera, Artists’ Village Ein Hod, Tel Aviv
2009 5 Sculptures, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2009 British Subjects 1948-2000, Neuberger Museum of Art, New York
2008 The Archer and the Goat, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2008 Kate Atkin and Amikam Toren, Squid & Tabernacle, London
2008 Intimacy, Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Victoria, Australia
2008 Marc Camille Chaimowicz, de Appel, Amsterdam, traveling to PMMK in Oostende, Belgium
2008 At Home, Voewood Projects, High Kelling, Norfolk
2008 Building, Dwelling, Thinking, Group show curated by John Slyce, Laura Bartlett Gallery, London
2007 Museum of Contemporary Art, Dubrovnik
2007 Still life, still, T 1 + 2 Gallery, London
2007 Avatar of Sacred Discontent, T 1 + 2 Gallery, London
2007 In the End was the Word, Matthew Bown Gallery, London
2007 Chisenhale Biennale, London
2006 The Signing, Keith Talent Gallery, London (curator)
2006 House in Motion, Fieldgate Gallery, London
2006 Celeste Art Prize, Truman Brewery, London
2006 If it didn’t exist you’d have to invent it: a partial showroom history, The Showroom, London
2006 Kapital, Kent Gallery, New York
2005 Mythomania, The Metropole Galleries Folkestone, Kent
2005 Whatever Happened to Social Democracy, Rooseum Center for Contemporary Art, Malmö
2004 The Solar Anus, Henry Peacock Gallery, London
2004 Bone Quake, 16 Upper Wimpole St, London
2004 Painting, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2003 ChockerFuckingBlocked, Jeffrey Charles, London
2002 Face Off: portrait of the artist, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (cat.) and 2002 touring to Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne
2002 Fluent – paintings and words, Centenary Gallery, Camberwell College of Arts
2002 Reality Revisited, Martin Kudlek, Cologne
2002 Mostyn Open, Oriel Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno
2002 Reflections, gf2, London (cat., ill.)
2002 The Green Room, Percy Miller Gallery, London (curated by Simon Moretti)
2002 A B See D, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2002 Live in Your Head, Museu do Chiado, Lisbon
2002 Men at Home, Kalisher Gallery, Tel Aviv
2002 Makeshift, University of Brighton (cat., ill.)
2000 Galway Arts Centre, Ireland
2000 Amikam Toren/Ian Breakwell, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
2000 Live in Your Head: Concept and Experiment in Britain, 1965-75,
2000 Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (cat., ill.)
2000 British Art Show 5, Edinburgh and tour (cat., ill.)
1999 Artfocus, Jerusalem Biennale
1999 British Artists, Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna
1999 Porcupines/Arthinking 1999, 291 Gallery, London
1999 John Moores Exhibition 21, Liverpool (Prize winner)
1999 Furniture I, Richard Salmon, Studio 4, London
1998 Aalst paper biennale, Aalst
1998 4 Schilders-4x solo-4 peintres, De Markten, Brussels
1998 Context, Jewish Arabic Cultural Centre, Haifa (cat.)
1998 A-Z (curator: Matthew Higgs), The Approach, London
1998 Craft, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge (cat.)
1997 619 KBB 75, mobile, Paris and tour
1997 Humanism 2020, Ein-Hod Sculpture Biannale, Israel
1997 Irredeemable Skeletons, Shillam + Smith 3, London
1997 L’empreinte, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1996 Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
1996 The pleasure of aesthetic life, The Showroom, London (curator)
1995 Pretext: Heteronyms, Clink Street Studios, London
1995 Cubitt Gallery, (with Gavin Brown, Jemina Stehli, Paul Noble), London
1994 London Landescapes, Associazone Culturale Velan, Torino
1994 Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
1994 Original Paintings, Institut Francais, London
1993 Portrait Now, National Portrait Gallery, London (cat., ill. text by Robin Gibson)
1993 Spit in the Ocean, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
1993 Second Tyne International, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (cat., ill.)
1993 Moving into View, Royal Festival Hall, London, and touring (cat.)
1992 And What Do You Represent?. Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
1992 With Attitude, Galerie Guy Ledune, Brussels
1992 15/1, Melania Basarab, London
1992 Surface Values, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
1991 Kunstlandschaft Europa, Kunstverein Freiburg
1990 Counterpoint, Gimpel Fils, London
1989 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 16, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (prize winner)
1989 The Tree of Life, touring to Manchester, Penzance, Exeter, London,
1989 Sheffield, Bradford, Durham,
1989 Eastbourne, Peterborough, Edinburgh, Ayr, Lincoln, Coventry (cat., ill.)
1989 Anthony Reynolds Gallery (Dering Street), London
1989 Evidence, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
1988 Fragments of False Houses, Pomeroy Purdy Gallery, London
1987 Instalment – 5 British Artists, Plan K, Brussels (cat., ill.)
1987 On a Plate, Serpentine Gallery, London
1987 John Moores Liverpool Exhibition 15, Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool (cat., ill. no 4)
1986 No Place Like Home, Cornerhouse, Manchester
1986 Furniture Sculpture, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
1985 Masterpieces of the Avantgarde: Three Decades of Contemporary Art – The Seventies, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
1985 New Art I, Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
1984 Problems of Picturing, Serpentine Gallery, London (cat., Sarah Kent, ill.)
1984 Aperto, Venice Biennale
1983 Photo(graphic) vision, Winchester Gallery, Winchester
1982 Lewis Johnstone Gallery, London
1982 Un nuovo classicismo, Premio Lubiam, Padua
1981 Lewis Johnstone Gallery, London
1981 The Garden of Knowledge, The Critics Gallery, Warsaw
1978 London Calling, Acme Gallery, London and to Peterloo Gallery, Manchester
1978 Sound, Whitechapel Gallery, London
1977 On Site, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol
1975 Garage Art Ltd, London
1974 Off the top of their heads, Artists’ Meeting Place, London
1972 Sculpture and sculptors drawings, Annely Juda Fine Art, London
1971 London Art Spectrum, Alexandra Palace, London
1967 Paris Biennale
Collections
Arts Council
Tate Collection
Vehbi Koç Foundation
Private Collections worldwide
July 23, 2018
May 1, 2018
December 18, 2009
September 8, 2005
Mar 22, 2014
Dec 11, 2013
Feb 22, 2013
Nov 25, 2010
Aug 22, 2010
Jan 08, 2010
Oct 19, 2005
Recent News
May 10, 2014
Amikam Toren, Frieze New York, installation view, 2014
November 1, 2013
Installation view, courtesy of Anthony Reynolds Gallery, London
September 3, 2013
Four Corners of The World, installation view