Oliver Clegg: Euclid's Porsche
Rental Gallery Presents
Oliver Clegg: Euclid’s Porsche
Curated by Adam Cohen
May 1 - 25, 2018
New York, NY – April 17, 2018 – Rental Gallery is pleased to present new work by Brooklyn-
based artist Oliver Clegg for his first solo exhibition in New York City, on the ground floor of the
Metal Shutter Houses project. Euclid’s Porsche is comprised of 150 paintings of Happy Meal
Toys sourced from eBay seller photographs found online. The opening reception will be on
Tuesday, May 1 from 6 to 8pm.
The artist recreates, as oil paintings, the photos eBay sellers take of their objects, honoring the
original size, composition, and color of the found image. By subverting the intent of these
amateur photographers—by elevating their photographs to art—the artist adds value to their
often nonchalant attempts to make a sale. These paintings are intimate and wistful, reflecting
the sentimental affection we have for seemingly worthless plastic we valued as children.
British-born Clegg is a conceptual artist who mines the fertile history of the past, particularly
found objects, and seeks to imbue these objects with some of their original magic. His work is
humorously melancholic, exposing our memories and discarded ephemera as potential sources
of symbolism. This exhibition casts the internet as an open source photography album where
everyone can mine memories that aren’t their own.
The exhibition is curated by Adam Cohen, who bought Oliver Clegg’s entire MFA degree show
in 2005, becoming his first collector. With an abundance of Oliver’s work, and the artist
spontaneously decamping to the South West of England, the pair lost touch but reconnected a
few years ago when Oliver substituted Wellington boots for sneakers and moved to New York.
Outside NADA New York, Adam ran into his friend and artist Darren Bader who encouraged his
walking partner Oliver that “Adam is one of the nicest people in the art world." A studio visit was
arranged and a subsequent invitation by Rental Gallery to present the work during Frieze
seemed tailor-made – the connection reestablished.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalogue of the complete works with a text by Darren
Bader that offers over a hundred and twenty working titles for the show.
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Oliver Clegg has exhibited extensively since graduating in 2005 and has been presented at the
Prague, Busan and Venice Biennales as well as showing in the Reykjavik Museum of Modern
art, Dox Centre for the contemporary Art and The Saatchi gallery. Anomie has recently
published his first comprehensive monograph that was launched at PS1 MoMa in December
2017. His work is in various notable private and public collections.