Tate Liverpool Tate Café
Frankfurt-based artist Tobias Rehberger has been specially commissioned to transform the Tate Liverpool Café into a multi-coloured three-dimensional work of art. The artist has created a vibrant installation that consists of coloured acrylic glass garlands branching out from the centre of the ceiling giving the space a festive and cheerful feeling. The work also features a prominent wall installation, combing text with graphic elements executed also in coloured acrylic glass. The text reads ‘Together a New Liverpool’, but it is arranged in a manner that suggests a number of poetic variations such as ‘To Get Her a New Liver/ Pool’, a comment on the city’s current renaissance.
Tobias Rehberger is one of the most prominent artists of his generation. He was born in Esslingen, Germany in 1966 and now lives in Frankfurt. Rehberger has exhibited widely internationally including recent major shows at Reina Sofia, Madrid (2005) and the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (2004). Forthcoming exhibitions in April and May 2006 include Galerie Bärbel Grässlin, Frankfurt, Friedrich Petzel Gallery, New York and Haunch of Venison, London.
Never one to restrict himself to working in traditional gallery spaces, Rehberger has installed his artworks in various unlikely environments. In the summer of 2000 he created a pseudo-Japanese garden in Hanover which was covered in artificial snow every day. In 1999 he installed a series of internet-controlled glass-blown lamps in a one-hundred-foot long, dark connecting tunnel of a medieval city in Tuscany. Often bringing humour into his work, Rehberger also frequently incorporates an element of interaction, having once asked museum security guards to knit copies of twelve painted portraits into sweaters that would fit the person portrayed.
Following a major refurbishment, Tate Café re-opened to the public in February 2005, as a larger, lighter, more open space. The stunning views across the Albert Dock are now complemented by Rehberger’s vibrant installation, and visitors won’t have to wait until they’ve finished their open sandwich or afternoon tea before they soak up some art.
Tate Café is open during gallery hours: Tuesday - Sunday 10.00 - 17.50 (Closed on Mondays except Bank Holidays). Tate Café also offers an outstanding contemporary and stylish venue for evening functions. For booking details please contact Pauline Hewitt, Events Co-ordinator, on 0151 702 7432 or email pauline.hewitt@tate.org.uk.