cameron clayborn: nothing left to be

cameron clayborn received the Baloise Art Prize in September 2021. As with its last three recipients – Sam Pulitzer, Lawrence Abu Hamdan and Xinyi Cheng – this award is accompanied by the Baloise Group’s purchase of a work by the respective artist for the Nationalgalerie collection, an exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof and a publication. clayborn’s first solo exhibition in Europe entitled nothing left to be includes two works from his series homegrown (2021) that will remain at the Nationalgalerie as gifts. US artist cameron clayborn (b. 1992) works with materials such as paper, plaster ceiling paint, and insulation material made out of recycled clothing. Their artistic practice includes sculpture, drawing and performance. The sculptures homegrown #1 and homegrown #2, whose forms taper sharply at their bases, appear to stand on the floor yet are suspended like cocoons from the exhibition space ceiling. Although their apparently precarious position calls on viewers to maintain their distance, the works’ texture and surface draws them in for a closer look. This interplay of distance and proximity, solidity and fragility, physicality and abstraction characterises clayborn’s sculptural works. The exhibition takes place within the framework of the Berlin Art Week. The exhibition is made possible by the Baloise Group. smb.museum