Simon Lee Gallery is proud to present an exhibition of wrapped paintings by Merlin Carpenter. In 2009 Carpenter came up with the idea to make new interpretations of a group of paintings from the 1960s by the British artist John Hoyland (1934-2011). Carpenter was drawn to this particular body of work for its engagement with and furtherance of the ambitious large-scale US painting of the time.

Carpenter approached John Hoyland to ask for permission to exhibit his reinterpretations. Permission was not granted. Thus in an attempt to ameliorate complications of copyright these paintings have been wrapped in layers of cardboard.

These new monochrome cardboard works, complete with packing tape and transport labels, continue a line of exhibitions by Carpenter of readymades as paintings. What make this series distinct is that the owners of these works will be contractually bound to keep them wrapped until 2081.

Merlin Carpenter was born in 1967 and lives in Shepperton, UK. Carpenter’s work has been shown extensively internationally and has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions and projects, including Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland (2015), MD72, Berlin, Germany (2015), Formalist Sidewalk Poetry Club, Miami, FL (2010), American Fine Arts, Co., New York, NY (2003), Kunstakademi Bergen, Bergen, Norway (2001) and Secession, Vienna, Austria (2000). Major group exhibitions include The Kitchen, New York, NY (2016), Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, Lithuania (2016), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY which travelled to Centre Pompidou, Paris, France (2015) and Museum Brandhorst, Munich, Germany (2015). His work is in major private and public collections including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France and The British Council, London, UK.