Form, Time & Presence
Form, Time & Presence marks Damian Joshua Arkeveld's debut solo exhibition in New York — a city that has long been the epicentre of the global contemporary art world. Presented at Hauser & Wirth's expansive Chelsea gallery, the exhibition brings together twelve new works created specifically for this landmark show.
The exhibition occupies the full ground-floor gallery, with works arranged in a carefully choreographed sequence that guides the viewer through three thematic chambers: Form, Time, and Presence.
The Works
Form Chamber
The opening gallery presents four abstract works in white Carrara marble. These pieces — Ascending Form, Passage, Pillar of Light, and Equilibrium — explore the fundamental vocabulary of sculptural form: curve against plane, mass against void, the tension between geometric precision and organic intuition.
Each sculpture is positioned on low basalt plinths that echo the dark gallery floor, allowing the white marble to float in the dimmed space. Directional lighting creates dramatic shadows that shift throughout the day as natural light enters through the clerestory windows.
Time Chamber
The central gallery presents five works that engage directly with geological and human time. Erosion Study III, carved from a naturally weathered Yorkshire boulder, anchors the room. Around it, Genesis, Monolith I, and Horizon Line create a landscape of stone forms that reference millions of years of geological process compressed into the gallery space.
A specially commissioned wall text by art critic Adrian Searle contextualises Arkeveld's unique position between deep time and contemporary urgency.
Presence Chamber
The final gallery is devoted to figurative works — Eternal Fragment, The Guardian, The Witness, and the exhibition's centrepiece, a new monumental head titled Memoria, carved from a single block of Portuguese pink marble weighing over two tonnes.
These works confront the viewer with an unmistakable human presence rendered in stone. The faces are not portraits of specific individuals but archetypes — the guardian, the witness, the memory. They ask the viewer to consider what endures when everything else falls away.
Critical Reception
The exhibition has been widely praised by international critics:
"Arkeveld brings a physicality and philosophical depth to his work that is rare in contemporary sculpture. These are not objects to admire from a distance — they demand engagement, proximity, and time." — ArtForum
"The most significant debut by an Australian artist in New York this decade." — The Art Newspaper
Exhibition Details
Dates: 15 March – 30 June 2025 Venue: Hauser & Wirth, 542 West 22nd Street, Chelsea, New York Opening: Saturday 15 March, 6–9pm Admission: Free Curator: Dr. Eleanor Voss
A fully illustrated catalogue with essays by Adrian Searle and Dr. Eleanor Voss is available from the gallery bookshop.