Ad Minoliti · let's play a better world
From 28 May to 30 October 2022, Tate St Ives presents “Biosfera Peluche/ Biosphere Plush”, its first exhibition of the work of Argentine artist Ad Minoliti.
Source: Tate · Image: Ad Minoliti, "May You Live in Interesting Times", exhibition view, 58th International Art Exhibition · La Biennale di Venezia. Photo: Andrea Rossetti
Following its run at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art in Gateshead (24 July 2021-8 May 2022), “Biosphere Plush”, the interactive exhibition created by Ad Minoliti (b.1980), comes to Tate St Ives, where, in the gallery's words, “Minoliti’s playful approach to painting will transform the physical gallery space into an imagined world, merging ideas around modern art, social justice, internet subcultures, and science fact and fiction”.
The exhibition is conceptually inspired by the Biosphere 2 Project, the world's largest enclosed artificial ecosystem, built between 1987 and 1991 in Arizona. Tate St Ives explains that "using the gallery walls as a canvas, Minoliti’s colourful geometric murals set the scene for this new universe. Inside the imagined biosphere, new works from the artist’s ‘Fables (Butterfly and Flowers)’ series use colour and shape to deconstruct gender roles. These will be shown alongside works from Minoliti’s ‘Space Playset’ series, often referred to as ‘cyborg paintings’ due to their origins as spray-painted images that are digitally manipulated, printed, and then overpainted by hand. Created by both human and machine, Minoliti invites viewers to question the distinctions we make between biology and technology. The space is also inhabited by hybrid creatures, who reference cartoons and contemporary subcultures popular online. These human-sized avatars, a species which Minoliti calls ‘Furries’, each have non-binary names and wear clothing designed by the artist alongside collaborator Lam Hoi Sin. Bringing together ideas from queer and feminist theory, animalism and childhood, Minoliti further encourages viewers to think beyond the categorisations that we make between things – male and female, terrestrial and alien, art and everyday life."
In addition to this exhibition, Tate St Ives is also presenting two exhibitions dedicated to Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912-2004) and Jonathan Michael Ray (b. 1984). Both artists were interested in the local landscape, "exploring the idea that there is more to experience in nature than can be found on the surface".

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