Working with etching, digital printing, screen printing and light-box installations, Michael Craig-Martin’s instantly recognisable imagery is vividly coloured and crisply defined, with objects presented on one-colour backgrounds. A solo exhibition at London’s Alan Cristea Gallery sets out to explore the conceptual artist’s most recent work.

A significant influence on the Young British Artists when he was tutor at Goldsmiths College, London – where he remains professor of Fine Art – Craig-Martin is possibly most noted for his 1973 An Oak Tree where a glass of water stood on a shelf on the gallery wall – the accompanying text using semiotic argument to explain that this is an oak tree.

The new exhibition includes a series of 12 screenprints entitled ‘Objects of our Time’, alongside other recent editions in several different media – all of which focus on everyday items and objects from the worlds of art and design. ‘Wish List’, also curated by Craig-Martin, brings together iconic 20th and 21st century prints by major modern and contemporary artists both from his personal collection.

Inspired by a trompe-l’oeil violin painted on the back of a secret door of the private apartments at Chatsworth, Craig-Martin, for instance, has produced his own contemporary version of the violin in the form of an edition to be sold during the exhibition at Chatsworth.

Michael Craig-Martin: Objects of Our Time and Wish List is at the Alan Cristea Gallery from 28 March to 3 May 2014.

Design Talks | 5 – 25 Scrutton Street | Old Street | Shoreditch | London | EC2A 4HJ?W | UK 
Design Talks is published by Spinach Design

All rights and labelled images are covered by ©