The Royal Academy of Arts, London, announces that leading British artist Michael Craig-Martin will present an exhibition of painting, sculpture and prints at The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida, opening 29 January, 2019. This will be the second annual exhibition at Windsor presented in collaboration with the Royal Academy, as part of a three-year curatorial partnership launched in 2018, and the first exhibition of outdoor sculpture to be presented at Windsor.

Born in 1941 in Dublin, Ireland, Michael Craig-Martin moved to the United States with his family, spending most of his childhood in Washington DC. He studied Fine Art at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture from 1961-66. Among his fellow students at Yale were Richard Serra, Brice Marden, Nancy Graves, Chuck Close, Jennifer Bartlett and Jon Borofsky. After his studies, Craig-Martin was offered a teaching position at the Bath Academy of Art, moving back to the UK in 1966. Initially intending only to stay a year or two, he has made England his life and career ever since.

In 1969, Craig-Martin had his first solo exhibition at the Rowan Gallery, London. He participated in the definitive exhibition of British conceptual art, “The New Art” at the Hayward Gallery in 1972. Over the past 50 years he has had numerous exhibitions and installations worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; IVAM, Valencia, Spain; Kunsthaus Bregenz, Austria; Haus Esters, Krefeld, Germany; Himalayas Museum, Shanghai which travelled to the Hubei Museum, Wuhan, and most recently the Serpentine Gallery, London. He represented Britain in the 23rd Sao Paulo Biennal. A retrospective of his work was presented at the Whitechapel Gallery, London in 1989 and a second at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin in 2006.

Titled Present Sense, the exhibition at Windsor will be his most comprehensive in the United States to date, including recent paintings, sculptures, prints and editions. Comprising over 35 works and extending beyond the walls of The Gallery into the grounds of Windsor, the exhibition will also include three new paintings completed in 2018; Untitled (stiletto), Untitled (split-level) and Untitled (wireless).

Throughout his career Craig-Martin has produced work in a variety of media, which explore the nature and basic principles of visual language and perception through the use of everyday objects, images, and materials. Indeed, his entire oeuvre has become a comprehensive record of the objects of our time. In recent years, he has focused on the technological objects that have come to dominate and define contemporary living, including laptops, iPhones and wireless headphones. His work over the last 30 years is easily recognised by his hallmark style of rigorously precise line drawing combined with his characteristic use of intensely vibrant colours.

Craig-Martin taught at Goldsmiths College School of Art, London, from 1974 to 1988 and from 1994 to 2000. During this time he became a powerful influence on a generation of his students who would become known as the young British artists, including Julian Opie, Damien Hirst, Liam Gillick, Gary Hume, Mat Collishaw, Sarah Lucas, Fiona Rae, Michael Landy and Ian Davenport.

His memoir and advice for aspiring artists, On Being An Artist, was published in 2015 by London-based publisher Art / Books. Craig-Martin served as a Tate Artist Trustee from 1989-99 and was closely involved in the development of Tate Modern. He was awarded a CBE in 2000, elected as a Royal Academician in 2006 and knighted in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to art in 2016.

He is represented by Gagosian and Alan Cristea Gallery.

Present Sense will be curated by Hannah Freedberg, Director at Gagosian London. There will be a fully illustrated catalogue published by Windsor Press and the Royal Academy, with an essay by contemporary art critic, editor and writer Ben Luke and an interview with Michael Craig-Martin and Tim Marlow, Artistic Director, Royal Academy.

The programme for the three-year curatorial partnership between the Royal Academy of Arts and The Gallery at Windsor which began with Grayson Perry RA has been selected by The Hon. Hilary M. Weston, Windsor co-founder and Creative Director for The Gallery at Windsor, Christopher Le Brun, President of the Royal Academy, and Tim Marlow, Artistic Director of the Royal Academy. An exhibition by a third Royal Academician will take place in 2020.

The Hon. Hilary M. Weston, co-founder of Windsor and the Creative Director for The Gallery at Windsor said  “We are delighted to be continuing our partnership with the Royal Academy of Arts and its internationally renowned programme of exhibitions.  It is an honour to welcome Sir Michael Craig-Martin to Windsor as the second Royal Academician in our exhibition series and the first artist to present an outdoor installation at Windsor. Following on the heels of the immensely successful 2018 Grayson Perry RA exhibition, we continue our 16-year tradition of exhibiting world-class contemporary artists at The Gallery at Windsor.”

Christopher Le Brun PRA said, “Apart from his acknowledged achievements as an artist, for many years Michael has been a highly respected and key figure of the British Art establishment, whether as teacher, lecturer or board member and advisor.  His role as co-ordinator of the famous Royal Academy Summer Exhibition in 2015 led to record attendances and sales, and a reappraisal of its position as an important event in the contemporary art calendar. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing his sculpture displayed against the ideal green grass and blue skies of Windsor. Michael is the first to present his work in the landscape there.”

Dates and Opening Hours
Open to public: 29 January – 25 April 2019
The Gallery at Windsor is open to the public by appointment Tuesday through Thursday between 10am and 4pm. To schedule an appointment, contact The Gallery at 772 388 4071 or via email to gallery@windsorflorida.com.

Free Admission
There is no admission fee to visit The Gallery.  Exhibition visitors may choose to support The Windsor Charitable Foundation with a suggested donation of $10.  This gift is tax-deductible and is designated to support arts education.

Social Media
Join the discussion about the exhibition online at:
Facebook /royalacademy /windsorflorida
Instagram @royalacademyarts  @windsorflorida
Twitter @royalacademy  @windsorflorida

About the Royal Academy of Arts
The Royal Academy of Arts was founded by a group of artists and architects, under the patronage of King George III, in 1768. It has a unique position in being an independent, privately funded charity led by eminent artists and architects whose purpose is to promote the creation, understanding and appreciation of the visual arts through exhibitions, education and debate.

The Royal Academy has launched a new campus as part of the celebrations of its 250th anniversary year. Following a transformative redevelopment, designed by the internationally-acclaimed architect Sir David Chipperfield RA and supported by the National Lottery, the new Royal Academy of Arts reveals more of the elements that make the RA unique – sharing with the public historic treasures from its Collection, the work of its Royal Academicians and the Royal Academy Schools, and its role as a centre for learning and debate about art and architecture – alongside its world-class exhibitions programme. royalacademy.org.uk

About The Gallery at Windsor, Vero Beach, Florida
Founded in 2002, The Gallery at Windsor is an independent art space at the heart of the Windsor community. The Gallery annually invites curators to respond to the space with museum-quality shows of contemporary art. The Hon. Hilary M. Weston serves as Creative Director for The Gallery.

The Gallery has exhibited works by leading contemporary artists including Christo & Jeanne-Claude, Ed Ruscha, Bruce Weber, Peter Doig, Alex Katz, Per Kirkeby Hon RA and Christopher Le Brun PRA. In April 2011, a three-year collaboration with the Whitechapel Gallery, London realised exhibitions by Beatriz Milhazes, Gert & Uwe Tobias, and American Icon Jasper Johns Hon RA. Most recently, The Gallery presented the first exhibition in a three-year collaboration with the Royal Academy.  Featuring celebrated British artist and Turner Prize winner, Grayson Perry CBE RA, the multi-media exhibition titled Making Meaning opened in January 2018.  windsorflorida.com/gallery

About Windsor
Windsor is a private residential sporting club community spanning 425 acres of lush barrier island between the Indian River and the Atlantic Ocean in Vero Beach, Florida. Established in 1989 by Hilary and W. Galen Weston of Toronto, Canada, Windsor was designed by renowned town planners Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk in the New Urbanism style of residential living, one that offers public and community spaces framed by timeless architecture and landscape design that celebrates its tropical and unspoiled setting. Windsor is comprised of 350 homesites in various styles including village homes, cottages and country estates, all remarkable for their signature Anglo-Caribbean architecture and gracious living.  Residents enjoy privacy and seclusion combined with the finest amenities, exemplary services and sporting activities.  windsorflorida.com

For further press information, please contact:
Erica Bolton at Bolton & Quinn on 07711 698 186
erica@boltonquinn.com
Elena Davidson at the Royal Academy of Arts on 020 7300 5610
elena.davidson@royalacademy.org.uk
Jane Smalley at Windsor, Florida on 001 772 388 8609
Jane.Smalley@windsorflorida.com