Melting candles, rotting trees, a huge curtain of apples and a chalk mine 3D-printed into life … these impermanent spectacles turn art into theatre.

The Guardian

★★★★★

The Scottish artist’s new exhibition, at Turner Contemporary in Margate, is a beguiling, ephemeral display rooted in the landscape of Kent.

The Times

★★★★

Anya Gallaccio: preserve is the largest survey exhibition to date of British artist Anya Gallaccio. The exhibition spans three decades of Gallaccio’s radical practice, restaging several iconic sculptures in addition to a new site-specific commission. It reveals the artist’s consistent rethinking of the relationship between art and the environment by presenting works that connect with Kent’s natural heritage.

Due to the temporal nature of her work, much of Gallaccio’s practice is best known through documentary photographs and memory. This exhibition introduces her sculptures and large-scale installations so that a new generation can engage in their references to environmental sustainability and preserving fragile ecosystems.

Renowned for her innovative use of organic, ephemeral materials such as apples, flowers and chalk, and for her explorations of transformation and impermanence, Gallaccio has reshaped our understanding of contemporary sculpture.

Complementing Gallaccio’s exhibition, Turner Contemporary has developed an extensive school programme in partnership with the artist. This programme, titled An Apple a Day, aims to explore Kent’s countryside, heritage, and history through the lens of the apple and county’s apple orchards. Inspired by the work of Californian chef and food activist Alice Waters, Gallaccio seeks to embed nature across everyday teaching in primary schools.

In collaboration with Kent Downs National Landscape, DEFRA and Lees Court Estate, this project underscores Turner Contemporary’s commitment to sustainability and celebrates the relationship between art, ecology, and agriculture in Kent. By engaging students with the rich heritage of the region’s apple orchards, the programme fosters a deeper appreciation for nature and promotes environmental stewardship from an early age.

Anya Gallaccio: preserve is curated by Melissa Blanchflower, Senior Curator, Turner Contemporary.

preserve is the first in Turner Contemporary’s new Art+Environment programme strand, where curatorial research is generously supported by the John Ellerman Foundation.

The live 3D printer extrudes a mixture of chalk and porcelain over a series of weeks, gradually building the sculpture. The form it draws, in hexagonal lines, is a scaled-down version of a dene hole – a type of deep underground chamber. Prevalent in Kent, dene holes were hand-excavated and accessed by a narrow, vertical shaft.

This printer operates once a day, during which it prints a single layer of the sculpture. Each layer must dry before the next is added the following day, continuing until the sculpture is complete. Watch the video below to see the machine in action.

The printer will operate daily at noon, when possible.

There will be gerberas in Margate; a heavy curtain of apples; an ash tree – felled due to its sickness from dieback – reconstructed in an upper gallery. […] ‘Nearly everything in the show has something to do with the locality,’ says Gallaccio.

Financial Times

Dissolution, uncertainty and paradox are the stock in trade of the British artist, whose latest works include trees as a metaphor for those living with HIV/Aids and casting chalk caves with a 3D printer.

The Art Newspaper

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The exhibition is generously supported by Thomas Dane Gallery, Annet Gelink Gallery, Henry Moore Foundation and Alexandra and Guy Halamish. Additional support comes from the Exhibition Supporters’ Circle: Sarah Griffin, Helen van der Meij-Tcheng, Ivor Braka Ltd, and further supporters who wish to remain anonymous. The learning project An Apple a Day is funded by Farming in Protected Landscapes programme from DEFRA, the Kent Downs National Landscape (Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), with an additional grant from The Lunaria Trust. The exhibition was shortlisted for the Freelands Award 2022. Lees Court Estate, Creating Nature’s Corridors and grow fruit Trees are Project Partners and In-Kind Supporters. Turner Contemporary thanks our public funders, Kent County Council and Arts Council England, for their continued support.