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Richard Deacon: Looking for Something

03/06/2025 - 27/07/2025

 
“Richard Deacon is a sculptor whose decades-long sculptural practice stands as a notable and distinctive example of a continuous enquiry and persistent challenge of the constants and conventions of Western European sculptural tradition, as well as their redefinition and re-conceptualisation within the context of contemporary sculpture and Contemporary Art.
 
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Richard Deacon’s sculptures uniquely connect three main elements: the dominant concept of the legacy of modernist sculpture, which focuses on the autonomy of the artwork and its materiality; the precise procedures of machine-constructivist aesthetics(Deacon is a fabricator and his sculptures are fabrication1); and postmodern allegoricality, which includes the suggestiveness of form and material, as well as of the sculpture titles, the role of language in (dis)information, arbitrariness in language. Rather than completing the project of modernity, Deacon’s work continues its exploration. At the same time, it embodies a postmodern critique, paradoxically parodying and deconstructing modernist elements by incorporating and reinterpreting them.

The exhibition features Deacon’s series of small and medium-sized sculptures made from various materials: UW84DC and In the Woods (Ghost, Bear, Small Bear, Bat, Beast) made in wood, Tread made in stainless steel, and Made of This in glazed ceramic. These pieces were predominantly created over the past two years. Additionally, the exhibition includes a series of digital prints on polyester entitled Second Motif, featuring enlarged drawings created on the iPhone Notes app. Deacon’s work is characterized by a systematic approach to materials and a clear methodology that transforms these materials into visual interpretations. This process results in aesthetic objects of exceptional and sophisticated simplicity, rich in meaning and associations, transparently showcasing their origins. In his new sculptures, Deacon continues to explore the dynamic correlations of form and perception, the outer and the inner, mass and void, volume and space, the relationships between depth, surface, and structure, as well as the abstract and the in(direct), “fact and fiction” (RD). He also examines the interplay between the autonomy of words and their ambiguities on the one hand, and the sculptural form and its translation into associations, verbal descriptions, and potential meanings, on the other.”
 
Excerpts from the text by Jasmina Čubrilo, phD, printed for the exhibition Richard Deacon, U potrazi za neĉim/Looking for Something, Galerija Dots, Beograd, 2024 
 
The exhibition is realized in collaboration with the British Council North Macedonia, Dot Gallery, the British Embassy in Skopje and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Richard Deacon, UW84DC #19, 2024, wood, stainless and mild steel, 186 x 93 x 93 cm, Installation view at the MoCA Skopje

Richard Deacon, UW84DC #18, 2024, wood, stainless and mild steel, 53 x 127 x 83 cm. Installation view at the MoCA Skopje. In the background permanent installation of sculpture in the Museum’s atrium from the Macedonian artist Petar Hadzi Boshkov, KNOT 1, From the Calmness-Disquititude Series, 1996/1998.

Richard Deacon, Installation view from: 1) BEAR, 2023, wood (holly) and aluminium, 90 x 42 x 42 cm; 2) SMALL BEAR, 2023, wood (holly) and aluminium, 66 x 42 x 42 cm; 3) BAT, 2023, wood (holly) and aluminium, 75.5 x 42 x 42 cm; 4) BEAST, 2023, wood (beech, sycamore and hazel) and aluminium, 84 x 42 x 42 cm; 5) GHOST, 2023, wood (holly) and aluminium, 66 x 42 x 42 cm

Richard Deacon, MADE OF THIS #6, 2023, Glazed ceramic, 10 x 49.5 x 22 cm. Installation view at the MoCA Skopje

Richard Deacon, TREAD #9, 2024, stainless steel, 7.5 x 27.3 x 15 cm. Installation view at the MoCA Skopje. In the background permanent installation of sculpture in the Museum’s atrium from the Macedonian artist Petar Hadzi Boshkov, KNOT 1, From the Calmness-Disquititude Series, 1996/1998.

Richard Deacon, SECOND MOTIF series, 2024, print on sublimated polyester, Frames size 107 x 57 cm. Installation view at the MoCA Skopje

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