Leonor Antunes

Berlin based artist Leonor Antunes (born Lisbon, 1972) makes space for the contemplation of modernist art, architecture and design through sculpture made and displayed with the specifics of a given place in mind.  The forms and materials of her sculptures reference a history of modernism embedded in the work of its less visible protagonists; overlooked, often female, artists and designers, many of whom were immigrants in the countries in which they lived and worked. These ‘companions’ enter Antunes’ work in enigmatic ways – through an echo of form or measurement, or the replication of a particular knot, hinge, colour or material – infusing it with their spirit and sensibility.  

The Fruitmarket’s invitation to Antunes is to make an exhibition that combines existing and new work in all the spaces of the Fruitmarket – the airy modernism of the Exhibition Galleries and the rough materiality of the Warehouse. The exhibition will be curated by Briony Fer who worked with Fruitmarket on previous solo exhibitions of work by Eva Hesse and Gabriel Orozco, and who will write the catalogue that accompanies the exhibition, tracking Antunes’s engagement with the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh and Scotland.