Yavuz Gallery welcomes Caroline Rothwell

27 Aug 2023

Yavuz Gallery is pleased to announce representation of multidisciplinary artist, Caroline Rothwell.

Rothwell’s research-based practice traverses the sculptural and two-dimensional, often using unique self-devised fabrication methods to create speculative worlds out of essential systems. The daughter of an industrial chemist, Rothwell’s practice scrutinises human interaction with nature through history and its lasting effects, manipulating representations of living anatomies alongside domestic and industrial forms.

Carrie Kibbler, Curator of Hazelhurst Arts Centre, Australia, describes how Rothwell’s sculptures “invite the viewer to bridge the space between the body and broader systems with their form, gesture and scale. […] Rothwell is intrigued by the systems which underpin our lives, and these sculptures excavate the hidden. They allude not only to skeletal, respiratory and reproductive systems, but also to botanical forms, and to the built infrastructure which snakes around, above and below us.” Rothwell is currently part of In the arms of unconsciousness: women, feminism and the surreal at Hazelhurst Arts Centre.

Yavuz Gallery Founding Director Can Yavuz says, “Caroline’s works dissect and reconstruct humanity’s biases to create a complex, embodied look at our relationship with nature. The power and intellect of her practice is unmatched and vital to contemporary conversations around science, history, and the environment. We are incredibly proud to be working with Caroline and bringing her works to audiences across the globe.”

Born in 1967 in Hull, England and now based in Sydney, Australia, Rothwell has been curated extensively into institutional exhibitions, with recent projects including The National 2021: New Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia (2021); Horizon, a solo exhibition at Hazelhurst Regional Gallery and Arts Centre (2021); and Know My Name: Australian Women Artists 1900 to Now, National Gallery of Australia (2021). Other major curated projects include Femmage, Art Gallery of South Australia (2019); The Lady and the Unicorn: collection bestiary, Art Gallery of New South Wales (2018); Frágil, XIII Biennale of Cuenca, Ecuador (2016); Antipodes: cut apart, Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK (2016); Inspiracje, Trafo Centre for Contemporary Art, Poland (2017); Dark Heart: 2014 Biennial of Australian Art at Art Gallery of South Australia; and Urpflanze Street Plants, Museum of Economic Botany (2014).

Rothwell has undertaken public commissions at The Economist Plaza, London, for the Contemporary Art Society; City of Canada Bay Council, Sydney, Australia; City of Sydney, Australia; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, New Zealand; and was awarded the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia’s prestigious Loti Smorgon Sculpture Terrace Commission for her work Composer in 2016.

Her works are held in numerous collections in Australia and internationally, including the National Gallery of Australia; Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia; Art Gallery of South Australia; Shepparton Art Museum, Australia; University of Queensland Art Museum, Australia; State Library of Victoria, Australia; Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa; OMI International Arts Center, USA; Auckland Art Gallery, New Zealand; and the University of Cambridge, UK.

Rothwell will be presenting new works at Sydney Contemporary next month and will feature in Yavuz’s 2024 international gallery program including Art Basel Hong Kong.

Rothwell is represented in Melbourne, Australia, by Tolarno Galleries.

Image: Caroline Rothwell with her work Lung, 2021, canvas, gypsum cement, stainless steel, paint, mixed media at The National 2021: New Australian Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, 2021. Photo: Anna Kucera.