#white cube

"In Bed" (2005) ⦿ Ron Mueck · Hyperrealist sculpture, monumental scale

Ellen Altfest, Torso, 2011, Oil on canvas, 10 1/4 x 13 13/16 inches (26 x 35.2 cm)

Shao Fan | White Cube

Harry was a fan of Gursky & they became friends through owner Jay Jopling. He was granted exclusive access & accompanied Harry on tour (via @guardian)

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The 'White cube' in art, designates the 'neutral' and sterile gallery space that is meant to isolate works of art from the external world. Some defend it, stating that it's the best way to exhibit and elevate artwork, while others criticize the way it erases traces of context, time and materiality. The severed floor has always reminded me of one big gallery space, a place that is meant to shape and control both one's perception and experiences. Walter De Maria's Earth Room (1977), was an installation created by the artist to question and disrupt the concept of the white cube by placing dirt, a raw, unstable, smelly, humid, 'alive' thing inside the artificial neutrality of the gallery. The juxtaposition of these two things creates tension and surrealism, which reminds me of the grass in this episode of Severance. Just like Mark, the goats are trapped in a place that isn't natural to them, but they don't know any other existence. Just like the goats, Mark is an organic, chaotic, living thing that is trapped inside a sterile and controlled environment. But Marks lack of a reaction to the grass is disturbing, there's no shock or curiosity: because everything in the severed floor is just another piece of corporate property to the innies, and that detachment is unsettling. Real things lose their meaning and nature loses life.

In Focus: ‘Harry Styles’ (2025) by Andreas Gursky⁠ ⁠ White Cube Senior Director, Hannah Gruy introduces this landmark work, which emerged from an extended collaboration during which Andreas was granted on-stage access at Harry’s live concerts.⁠ ⁠ Combining imagery from performances in Reggio Emilia, Italy and Frankfurt, the work has been digitally reconfigured so that each figure in the crowd is rendered with equal clarity, forming a mass that reads simultaneously as a unified throng and a constellation of individuals.⁠ ⁠ View this work at Andreas Gursky’s solo exhibition at White Cube Mason’s Yard until 8 November 2025.⁠ ⁠ Video: © White Cube (Lee Pretious)⁠