EXHIBITION: Albert Paley – Drawings and Sculptures

Messums London and Wiltshire is honoured to announce representation of Albert Paley’s work and studio in Europe and Australia. Albert Paley joins a roster of artists whose working practice is exemplified by their choice of material.

As representatives of Paley’s work in Europe and Australia we are delighted to present an exhibition of his drawings and smaller sculptures in our London gallery this November, as a precursor to a larger exhibition of his monumental metal sculptures in Wiltshire in the summer of 2020. The V&A Museum recently purchased one of Paley’s gates, which is installed in their metalwork gallery, joining existing examples of his work within the collection. Whilst Paley’s work has been a global one for a long time, there have been few opportunities on this side of the Atlantic for the public to see it.

The first of our two exhibitions will look principally at a range of his architectural work, including drawings, sculptures, and versions of his magnificent gates. The second will be at Messums Wiltshire and will focus on the larger scale sculpture and architectural work. Together they represent the most complete showing of the artist in Europe for some time.

‘The symbolic and aesthetic sensibility in Paley’s work reveals a consistency of mind, a view of the world, and an organic flow that ties it all together, from [his] early brooches to the monuments that contribute to cityscapes all over America. The artist has often talked about humanism, and the need for art to relate to people, in all their complexity. That is why he has committed himself, through the decades, to an art that lives in domestic and public, urban space. It is one of the most important oeuvres in metal or any other material of the last hundred years. And we are truly fortunate to see it gathered here in exhibition form.’

‘Over his career, there has been no aspect of the culture of metal that Albert Paley hasn’t impacted and changed. There is a profound ubiquity here, of an artist whose presence is everywhere: the modern history of jewellery, architectural metalwork, ornamental art, and sculpture. His career has spanned well over fifty years.’
Paul Greenhalgh

Albert Paley’s work can be found in the permanent collections of most major museums includingthe Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston; and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He has been commissioned by both public institutions and private corporations, and has completed more than 50 site-specific works, including Portal Gatesfor the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC; Synergy, a ceremonial archway in Philadelphia; Portal Gatesfor the New York State Senate Chambers in Albany; Sentinel, a monumental plaza sculpture for Rochester Institute of Technology; a 65-foot sculpture for the entry court of Bausch and Lomb’s headquarters in Rochester, NY; a gate for the Cleveland Botanical Gardens in Cleveland, OH; a sculptural relief for Wellington Place, Toronto, Canada; Threshold, a sculpture for the Corporate Headquarters of Klein Steel, Rochester, NY;and Transformation, a ceremonial entranceway for Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa.

Read the Financial Times How to Spend It article on our Albert Paley shows…Mind-blowing Metalwork at Messums London

Meet Albert Paley at the artist’s talk on Wednesday 27 or Thursday 28 November…info & tickets