A major new “Sharpie” commission by Aleksandra Mir.

Drawing Room

A solo exhibition by Aleksandra Mir

27 May – 19 July 2014

The project Drawing Room, a new commission by internationally renowned London based artist Aleksandra Mir, responds to the exploding energy of the fast-developing London skyline and explores drawing as a collective activity.

Taking over the gallery as a production space, Mir and her team of ten assistants will create a live drawing installation, using only ‘Sharpie’ marker pens.  The work will be based on the architecture of London, and include expansive street scenes and intimate interior views that invite you to enter these spaces. Working directly onto a specialist canvas backdrop, commonly used in theatre, the resulting mural will be 4 metres high and will extend to over 24 metres in length. After completion, the resulting installation will remain on exhibition for an additional six weeks.

Mir says: ‘It will be a collective live drawing extravaganza resulting in one mural sized work, choreographed by me and performed together with a group of assistants who will be working with me in the gallery space in full public view.  My objectives are to push drawing beyond the confines of the small-scale, manageable sheet of paper towards a larger unruly reality; at once a stage set, a choreography and a performative act. It will blend many art forms into one continuous process and activity where a lot is determined beforehand, but as much left to the energies and personalities of the people who will occupy the space and the daily goings on there.’

Working with a team Mir seeks to foster an ethos of shared achievement while creating an analogy to the collective life of the city. The process of collaboration and the use of atypical materials – in this case the “Sharpie” marker pen – are similarly integral to the artist’s working practice. Mir has drawn with the ‘Sharpie’ pen on a large scale for many years, transforming this popular everyday marker pen into a tool for experimentation. She manages to achieve complex patterns and painterly effects with the fading marker, creating works that are imbued with intense energy and remain a record of the physical labour required to make them.

‘I simply love the medium of drawing for its brutal honesty’, Mir says.

This is Aleksandra Mir’s first collaborative drawing project in London and one of her most ambitious drawing projects to date. For Drawing Room this is the first presentation of large-scale drawing made in situ by an artist.

Aleksandra Mir lives in London. Recent solo exhibitions and projects include The Space Age, M – Museum, Leuven; Discoteca, Magazzino, Rome; Visionaries of St. Pauli, Betongalerie, Hamburg (2013); Justice, Triple A, Los Angeles (2012); The Seduction of Galileo Galilei, Mercer Union, Toronto and Whitney Museum, New York (2011); Triumph, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt (2009); Switzerland and Other Islands, Kunsthaus, Zurich (2006). Group exhibitions include Energy and Process, Tate Modern, London (2013); 9 Bienal du Mercosul, Porto Alegre (2013); Monuments, Lismore Castle (2013); Pursuit of Perfection, South London Gallery (2012); ArtandPress, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin (2012); Once Upon a Time, Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2011); Plus Ultra, MACRO Testaccio, Rome (2010); 53 Venice Biennale (2009).

This exhibition has been supported by Elephant Trust and Cass Art. Cass Art is committed to encouraging everyone to realise their creative talents by providing the world’s best materials at accessible prices and supporting art initiatives across the UK. 

We will be operating normal gallery hours throughout this show from 27 May – 19 July 2014, normal hours are  Tuesday to Friday 11am–6pm and Saturday 12–6pm.

The private view will take place on Wednesday 11 June 2014:

6 – 6.30pm         Directors’ Tour of exhibition (open to all)

6.30 – 8.30pm   Private view

Notes to press:

From 27 May till 7 June – Mir and her assistants will be creating the work live in the gallery.

From 10 June till 19 July – final installation and documentary film of the process will be on display in the gallery.

Tuesday 27 May 2014 11am – 1pm Members of the press are welcome to preview the exhibition and interview the artist and her team.

Listings info:

Drawing Room                                                                   

A solo exhibition by Aleksandra Mir

27 May – 19 July 2014

A major new commission that responds to the exploding energy of the fast-developing London skyline and explores drawing as a collective activity.

Drawing Room,12 Rich Estate, Crimscott Street, London SE1 5TE [email protected] www.drawingroom.org.uk Tel: 0207 394 5657 FREE ADMISSION, Tue/ Wed/ Thur/ Fri  11 – 6pm, Sat 12 – 6pm

Tube: Bermondsey, London Bridge, Borough, from London Bridge it is a twelve minute walk and Borough station is a ten minute walk. Two minutes walk from buses stopping on Tower Bridge Road/Grange Road

For further information, images, biographies, or to arrange interviews please contact [email protected] or telephone 020 7394 5657. Please note photography is not allowed in the gallery and all publicity images are being provided by the artist.