John Latham

Latham is widely considered a pioneer of British conceptual art. His multifaceted practice encompasses sculpture, installation, painting, film, land art, engineering, found-object, assemblage, performance happenings and theoretical writings, the diversity of which is galvanised by his unique understanding of our place in the universe. The group exhibition Speak, running concurrently at the Serpentine North Gallery, proposes Latham as an ‘open toolbox’ for younger generations of artists whose diverse practices share affinities with Latham’s ideas and world view, revealing how they continue to resonate today.

Since he started exhibiting in the late 1940s, Latham has been associated with several national and international artistic movements, including the first phase of conceptual art in the 1960s. He was an important contributor to the Destruction in Art Symposium of 1966, and also a co-founding member of the Artist Placement Group APG (1966-89), along with Barbara Steveni, Jeffrey Shaw, David Hall, Anna Ridley and Barry Flanagan, an initiative that was to expand the reach of art and artists into wider society through organisations of all kinds, at all levels and on a basis equivalent to any other specialist.