David Medalla
David Cortez Medalla (23 March 1942, Manila, Philippines – 28 December 2020, Manila, Philippines) is an artist known primarily for his “biokinetic” sculptures produced in London in the 1960s. Among these sculptures were his Cloud Canyons, also known as bubble machines (first version 1963), which merged art and technology. As cofounder of the influential gallery, Signals London, Medalla played a vital role in introducing artists such as Lygia Clark, Jesús Rafael Soto, and Takis to Britain. In the late 1960s Medalla founded the Exploding Galaxy, an experimental performance group that enacted happenings in public settings across London and performed as an opening act for Pink Floyd and other rock groups. During this period, he began to create pioneering participatory artworks such as A Stitch in Time (first version 1968), in which spectators were invited to contribute to large-scale installations that he had initiated. From the 1979 until the end of his life, Medalla focused his practice on what he termed “synoptic realism,” producing paintings and impromptu performances that further forged creative connections between his personal experience and historical figures and mythological characters.
For more than six decades, David Medalla presented artworks, installations, and performances in a variety of formal and informal venues across the globe, from small artist-run spaces to major museums. His work was featured in two landmark exhibitions curated by Harald Szeemann: Live in Your Head: When Attitudes Become Form at Kunsthalle Bern (1969) and Documenta 5 in Kassel, Germany (1972). One of Medalla’s Cloud Canyon sculptures was featured in the influential exhibition The Other Story: Afro-Asian Artists in Post-war Britain (1989) at the Hayward Gallery in London, curated by Rasheed Areean. Medalla’s work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions, at such venues as Tate Modern, London (2016); Jewish Museum, New York (2014); Fondazione Prada, Venice (2013); Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2003); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2003); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1998); the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (1997); and New Museum, New York (1992). In 2016 he was shortlisted for the Hepworth Prize for Sculpture. Medalla’s participatory artwork A Stitch in Time was included in the 57th Venice Biennale (2017). In 2021/2022, the exhibition David Medalla: Parables of Friendship was presented at Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany and Museion, Bolzano, Italy. A survey of his drawings and works on paper was shown at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2024. (2024)
Contents
Works
Publications
- editor, Signals: Newsbulletin of the Centre for Advanced Creative Study, 10 issues, London: Signals Gallery, Aug 1964-Mar 1966; facsimile repr., index by Julian Zinovieff, London: Institute of International Visual Arts, 1995. [1] [2] [3] [4] Review: Overy (1997).
- planted. A report of the events leading up to and surrounding the arrest and committal to be tried before a judge and jury of 3 members of the Exploding Galaxy charged with being in possession of dangerous drugs, ed. Paul Keeler, London: Exploding Galaxy, 1968, 142+73 pp.
- Interviews
- Adam Nankervis, "A Stitch in Time: David Medalla", Mousse 29, Milan, 2011. (English)/(Italian)
- N P James, David Medalla: Works in the World - Exploding Galaxy, The Bubble Machine, Cv Publications, 2012, 64 pp. Excerpt. Interview with Medalla explores his art, performance and poetry from 1960 in London and Paris to the present day. [5]
Catalogues
- David Medalla: Parables of Friendship, eds. Steven Cairns, Fatima Hellberg, and Bart van der Heide, London: Koenig Books, Bonn: Bonner Kunstverein, and Bolzano: Museion, 2022, 297 pp. Exhibition, [6]. (English)/(German)/(Italian)
- David Medalla: In Conversation with the Cosmos, ed. & intro. Aram Moshayedi, forew. Ann Philbin, Los Angeles: Hammer Museum, and New York: DelMonico Books, 2024, 207 pp. Text by Magalí Arriola, Nyah Ginwright, CJ Salapare. Exhibition, [7]. Publisher. Exh. review: Lennard (e-flux).
Literature
- Guy Brett, "David Medalla: From Biokineticism to Synoptic Realism", Third Text 3:8-9 (1989), pp 79-106. [8]
- Guy Brett, Exploding Galaxies: The Art of David Medalla, forew. Dore Ashton, London: Kala Press, 1995, 216 pp, IA. [9]. Review: Overy (1997).
- John Albert Walker, Left Shift: Radical Art in 1970s Britain, I.B.Tauris, 2001.
