on my short sleeves (detail), 2009
stained wood, thumbtacks, men’s t-shirt and record sleeves
Three panels, each 61 x 121,9 cm

–

on my short sleeves (detail), 2009
stained wood, thumbtacks, men’s t-shirt and record sleeves
Three panels, each 61 x 121,9 cm

–

Patterned After Pleasure, 2011
wool and wool blend blankets, shirt, jacket, steel tacks, steel push-pins on stained plywood, 159 × 121 x 10 cm
image courtesy of Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London

–

Installation view at Modern Art, London, 2011
image courtesy of Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London

Last Night, 2011
wool and wool blend blankets, steel tacks on stained plywood, 182 × 182 x 10 cm
image courtesy of Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London

–

Dirty Pink, 2011
wool blankets and upholstery pins on plywood, 181,6 x 181,6 x 10,2 cm

–

Blanket details in his studio

–

Installation view at Modern Art, London, 2011
image courtesy of Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London

Schygulla in Blue, 2011
wool and wool blend blankets, steel tacks on stained plywood, 182 × 182 x 10 cm
image courtesy of Stuart Shave/Modern Art, London

all images courtesy of the artist

–

TOM BURR‘ work – photographs, drawings, sculptures and installations – investigates how the built spaces bind and control people as well as allow them degrees of comfort and security. Enthusiasm for the almost libidinous quality of surfaces and materials, his work gives embodiment to abstract shape imbuing his forms with suggestions of character . More recently he has been meticulously fastening blankets of various sizes, colors and textures with upholstery tacks to large, 6-foot-by-6-foot wooden panels:

These objects describe proximities and distances, some banal facts and some fantasies, and they somehow make up a practice. They’ve all been used, sat on, opened or closed, worn and worn out; they’ve reached the limits of their domestic tenure, stretched to their breaking point, even, then retrieved, revived, and somehow reconstituted, into the considered formation of some thing. – TOM BURR for Art Forum, September 2010

Currently based in New York, TOM BURR was born in 1963 in New Haven, Connecticut. His work has been shown widely in Europe and the United States. Recent shows include Felt Under Fingers (2011) at Almine Rech Galerie in Brussels, Gravity Moves Me (2011) at FRAC Champagne-Ardenne, and Mixed Use, Manhattan: Photography and Related Practices, 1970s to the Present (2010) at the Reina Sofia Centre of Art in Madrid.

And good news: if you are in Turin (Italy), you can view his exhibition Promiscuous Pleats at Franco Noero Gallery until February 28th, 2012