Billy Apple®: The Artist Has to Live Like Everybody Else

Billy Apple was at the heart of British art when it went 'Pop' in the 60s. In the 70s he opened an alternative space for conceptual art in New York. In the 80s his canvases revealed the behind-the-scenes of the art market. And he has been here in Auckland since the 90s, testing the system to show how art infiltrates life.

Auckland Art Gallery is staging the largest and most comprehensive retrospective exhibition of Billy Apple's fascinating career. Featuring everything from his early Pop and Conceptual works to his latest investigations into branding, intellectual property and biomedicine, this show proves the extent to which Billy Apple® has made art his life and life his art.

Billy Apple exhibitions and initiatives happening in Auckland and beyond during the exhibition:

From the Matuku Trust Collection: Works by Billy Apple – Whangarei Art Museum, 2 March – 26 June

Suck – Artspace, 6–20 March

Poetry in motion (group show) – Artspace, 27 March – 23 May

Sound works 1968-2015 – Te Uru, 24 April – 10 June

Gallery Abstracts – Melanie Roger Gallery, 22 April – 2 May

Withdrawn At The Request Of Sue Crockford Gallery – Gow Langsford (Kitchener Street), 27 May – 20 June

Totem (Billy Apple / Arnold Wilson) – Starkwhite, May

Billy Apple® Frieze (Red), 2015, The Old South British Building, 3–13 Shortland Street

$100,000 Credit Held, 2005, Minter Ellison, Lumley Centre, 88 Shortland Street

Lost and Found: Two Lanterns Re-Instated, 2015, Gus Fisher Gallery, 74 Shortland Street

Tarte Normande, pre-order from Giles Luncheonette, 21 Shortland Street

Billy Apple® Cider

Billy Apple® Compass

 

Articles, blogs, links and reviews:

Brand, New – Anthony Byrt, Frieze magazine

Portrait of an artist as an Apple – Greg Dixon, Canvas magazine

Interview with Wallace Chapman – Radio New Zealand

Billy Apple's Art for Sale – Tony Green, Art New Zealand

Where Apples Come From – Mark Amery, The Big Idea

Report: The Given as an Art-Political Statement – Wystan Curnow, Art New Zealand

Robert Ellis and Billy Apple – Ron Brownson, OUTPOST