Pauline Amos: PRODUCTION COSTS exhibition

This November Subway Gallery proudly hosts PRODUCTION COSTS by Pauline Amos, a performance painting artist. The Preview, Tuesday 4 Nov, with a live performance painting at 7.30 pm, is open to the public.

‘…the great artist of tomorrow will go underground’ - Marcel Duchamp - Symposium at the Philadelphia Museum College of Art, March 1961

In the Subway Gallery, Pauline Amos goes underground with her new solo show PRODUCTION COSTS. The exhibition comments on the price and on the value of a life. Amos continues a theme from 2005 when she created a painting called “Opera Paese” in Rome, the result of a 24 hour Painting Performance. 

The painting went on sale in London at a well known private members club for £1.3m. The outrageous price was purposefully provocative creating press stories and an ‘art scandal’ at the time. Asked how long the work had taken to produce, Amos replied ‘all my life, thirty years’, and how much is it worth? ‘The value of life is priceless. How do I put a price on 30 years of life or on a painting?’. The price tag was seen as a comment on the art and commodity market.

Combining performance and painting works, since 1999, a series of performed works followed entitled “My Flesh My Canvas” that led to many shows in Europe and Asia. Using the body as a blank canvas has been paramount to the Amos code.