Artist Biography
Ashley Bickerton (1959–2022, Barbados, based in Bali, Indonesia) was known for his mixed media practice that drew widely across genres and materials to challenge the boundaries of art-making. From found object assemblages to figurative portraits, his work presents vibrant, chaotic and often dystopic visions of a contemporary culture marked by excess and cultural dislocation.
A pioneer member of the “Neo-Geo” movement in New York’s East Village in the 1980s, Bickerton practiced alongside artists who used abstract geometric styles to critique the mechanisation and commercialisation of modern society. These early works stand in contrast to his later figurative pieces that incorporate elements of hyperrealism, nature, sexuality and the grotesque. He began creating these works upon relocating to Bali in 1993, as a way of parodying Western fantasies of exotic tropical life. This is notably demonstrated in his Blue Man series, where a blue-skinned figure—often a self-aware representation of the artist himself—is portrayed as both a family-oriented expatriate and a hedonistic traveller, an “alien in paradise”.
Bickerton obtained his BFA from the California Institute of the Arts, Valencia in 1982. His work is found in major collections including the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Museo D’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina, Naples; Museu Coleção Berardo, Lisbon; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Tate, London; Vancouver Art Gallery; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.
Notable exhibitions include The Greek Gift (2021), DESTE Foundation for Contemporary Art, Athens; Brand New (2018), Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; In the Dust of this Planet (2016), San Antonio Museum of Art; Human Interest (2016), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Painting 2.0 (2016), and Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna. The artist has also participated in major international festivals including The Boundary Rider (1992), 9th Biennale of Sydney; and Future Dimension (1990), 44th Venice Biennale.
Bickerton had his residency at the STPI Workshop in 2005, resulting in the exhibition …Just This! (2006).