This presentation features works in the UBS Art Collection by artists—representing different generations, geographies and art movements—who find inspiration in quotidian objects and materials, bridging the gap between fine art and popular culture. While traditional art often draws from figures, history or landscapes, these artists explore commonplace or commercial items, infusing new meaning into their chosen mediums and materials. They elevate these objects for different purposes—to evoke nostalgia or familiarity, reflect personal and collective identities or examine consumerism through mass produced imagery, transforming the ordinary into impactful works of art.
Michael Craig‑Martin has been a central figure in conceptual art since the 1970s, exploring the relationships between visual representation, language, and ideas. Active both as an artist and an influential educator, he taught fine art at Goldsmiths College, London, where he played a formative role in shaping the generation of artists — I including Damien Hirst — who later became known as the Young British Artists (YBAs) and defined British art of the 1990s.
From the late 1970s onward, Craig‑Martin developed a distinctive vocabulary of highly graphic, precisely rendered line drawings depicting ordinary household objects. This evolving lexicon has remained at the core of his practice, expanding across drawings, paintings and immersive wall works. By the 1990s, he translated these outlines into vividly colored paintings characterized by bold contours and flat, saturated color fields.
‘Folio’ (2004), a portfolio of 12 prints, reflects Craig‑Martin’s ongoing interest in everyday items and their shifting cultural meanings. Each print pairs a familiar domestic item with a contemporary “designer” object — such as a mobile phone or athletic trainers — highlighting the rapid evolution of consumer technologies and tastes. The series captures the artist’s observations on how objects once seen as cutting‑edge now appear nostalgic, while former luxury goods have become commonplace elements of modern life.