Sportswear (Achilles Street)

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, 100 Parliament Street

A bronze figure of a black man is elevated on a carved wooden plinth. A mythological and geographic layer is added to the sculpture’s identity in the work’s title. Achilles Street is located in Deptford, London, near Price’s studio. 

Price adopts traditional materials and methods, and draws on historical precedents in order to critique art history by representing people who have not commonly been visible in portraiture. He invites us to question the ways in which Black people are represented in art and contemporary culture. In his words, Price seeks to subvert stereotypical representation by depicting his subjects ‘not being heroic, not being a type, not being recorded as some sort of ethnicity.’

 

Thomas J Price studied at the Chelsea College of Art (2001−04) and the Royal College of Art (2004−06). His work across media, including sculpture, film and photography, engages with issues of representation and perception, in society and in art. Price has had numerous exhibitions, including solo shows at Hales Gallery, New York (2017), the National Portrait Gallery (2016), Royal Academy of Arts, and Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

Places

Subjects

Materials & Techniques

perspex, bronze, wood, mixed media sculpture, base

Artist

Thomas J Price (1981 - )

Title

Sportswear (Achilles Street)

Edition

2/3

Date

2011

Medium

Bronze and Perspex with integral wooden plinth

Dimensions

height: 171 cm; width: 36 cm; depth: 36 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from Hales Gallery, March 2018

GAC number

18762