Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by The Art Newspaperan editorial partner of CNN Style.
(CNN) — Brad Pitt made his debut as a sculptor, in a group show at the Sara Hildén Art Museum in Tampere, Finland. The movie star’s artworks appear alongside those of musician Nick Cave and artist Thomas Houseago for the “We” exhibition, which runs through January 15, 2023.
Among the nine Pitt works on display are a house-shaped structure cast in clear silicone with gunshot marks, and his first sculpture, from 2017, “House A Go Go” – a 18-inch miniature house made of tree bark, roughly taped together.
Larger pieces include a coffin-sized bronze box showing hands, feet and faces reaching through the structure at various angles, and a wall-hanging plaster sculpture dubbed “Aiming At You I Saw Me But It Was Too Late This Time” (Aiming at you, I saw myself, but this time it was too late”, from 2020, depicting an eight-figure shootout.
“Aiming At You I Saw Me But It Was Too Late This Time” de Brad Pitt (2020) Crédito: deBranne Treu
According to reports, the star of “Bullet Train” began making ceramic art following his turbulent divorce of actress Angelina Joliein 2017.
In an emailed statement to The Art Newspaper, Pitt said of his artistic turn, “For me it’s regarding self-reflection… It was born out of ownership of what I call a ‘radical inventory of the self.’ honest with myself and take into account those I may have hurt and the times I was wrong.
Pitt at the premiere of “Bullet Train” on August 1, 2022 in Los Angeles. Credit: Matt Winkelmeyer/WireImage/Getty Images
Meanwhile, Australian singer-songwriter Nick Cave (not to be confused with the American visual and performance artist of the same name) also makes his artistic debut, displaying “glazed ceramic figurines depicting the life of Satan in 17 seasons, from innocence through experience to the confrontation of our mortality,” according to a press release.
“The Devil: A Life” is Cave’s first major visual work. It includes 17 individual pieces that range between 10 and 50 centimeters in height, each one handmade, painted and enamelled by the author in England, between 2020 and 2022. Aesthetically, the series nods to the artist’s interest in Victorian-style figurines. Staffordshire Flatback, of which he is a collector.
Both novice sculptors created these works in dialogue with the considerably more experienced Houseago. The British artist has been working for almost three decades and showed his work at the Whitney Biennale in 2010.
A coffin-sized bronze box from Pitt. Credit: deBranne Treu
In Tampere, Houseago, better known as a sculptor, shows a series of paintings, a medium he has begun to experiment with in recent years. The works come from his large-scale “Visions” series that was done outdoors and was inspired by European symbolists, including the Norwegian Edvard Munch. He also shows new sculptures made in redwood and plaster that he made in response to works in the Fundación Sara Hildén collection, such as Alberto Giacometti’s sculpture “Woman in a Car” from 1943 to 1962.
Speaking of his decision to put on a collaborative show between himself, Cave and Pitt, Houseago said in the press release, “I’m not a me. I’m a WE!”
Read more stories from The Art Newspaper here.
Top image: Nick Cave, Thomas Houseago and Brad Pitt in “We.”
