Amikam Toren: Criminal Record

25 Jan-22 Feb 2025

Overview

Anthony Wilkinson is pleased to present a solo exhibition with conceptual artist Amikam Toren. The exhibition ‘Criminal Record’ features a group of works from the Reproduction Paintings series made over the past 10 years.

The intellectual property of an artist is violated when their work is defaced or destroyed by another.

Reproduction Paintings is a series of works that references both re-making and photographic reproductions of artworks, as seen in books, magazines etc. 

An original (found) painting, is removed from its stretcher. Fragments of the painting (four corners, two pillars, or a whole frame) are cut out and attached to a new canvas - in a position that indicates the size of the original, and in the location they occupied before the painting’s destruction. 

The remainder of the original painting is pulped. Pulping separates the canvas from the paint. The pulped canvas gets thrown away. The paint, which is now a monochrome dust, is mixed with a clear binder to form fresh ‘mechanical’ paint. This paint is applied to the new canvas, in the space indicated by the preserved fragments. 

The newly constructed painting is both a ‘reproduction’ and a Reproduction. Importantly, it is also a criminal record.

Amikam Toren (b. 1945, Israel) is a London based conceptual artist whose work explores themes in painting and sculpture, incorporating the destruction of ready-made objects / found materials, regenerating them into paintings and sculptures of his own. He has exhibited widely in Europe, and more recently USA, South Korea, and China. He has lived in London since 1968, and gained artistic prominence in the 1970s. He is a significant figure in British conceptual art and has work in many public collections.

Artists