This summer The Hepworth Wakefield presents a new exhibition by Magali Reus (b.1981), one of the UK’s most exciting young sculptors.

For her largest exhibition to date, and first solo show in a UK institution, Magali Reus: Particle of Inch will showcase the significant commission of two new series of work following their premiere in America earlier this year at SculptureCenter New York. The exhibition will comprise 20 new sculptures presented within a site-specific architectural environment constructed within The Calder, our 600 square metre art and events space situated opposite The Hepworth Wakefield in a 19th century mill.

In the two new series of work commissioned for this exhibition, Reus’ sculptural ‘curbs’ transform pavements into abstract structures that support intricate fragments. Manhole covers, cracks and graffiti become graphic inscriptions, while casts of ceramic mugs, plant pots and wire coat hangers suggest the ever-changing life of the street.

Reus’ second series of new works use enlarged padlock forms, with their pierced cases revealing exquisite interlocking interiors built from hundreds of layers of cut metal and plastic.

In her sculpture Reus draws on the unassuming details of everyday life, from domestic and crafted objects to the aesthetics of functionality and industrial design. Using casting, moulding, airbrushing and other fabrication techniques to create her precisely rendered forms, the familiar is made uncanny through Reus’ material manipulations and shifts in scale. Her work revels in the messy residues of human activity and the clinical precision of mass-production, via references to the history of 20th century abstract sculpture.

Reus’ exhibition will open alongside Caro in Yorkshire – a major exhibition of work by Anthony Caro presented by the Yorkshire Sculpture Triangle across two sites, The Hepworth Wakefield and Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Reus’ exhibition provides a dialogue with the eminent British sculptor’s work, which has been hugely inspirational to her art.

Particle of Inch will be Reus’ largest exhibition to date and her first touring museum show, co-commissioned by The Hepworth Wakefield with SculptureCenter, New York USA; Westfälischer Kunstverein, Munster, Germany and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin, Italy. Reus has a forthcoming solo exhibition at The Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands in 2016 and has been selected for British Art Show 8, which opens at Leeds Art Gallery on 9 October 2015.

Magali Reus (born 1981 in The Hague, The Netherlands) is based in London, UK. Recent group exhibitions include The Noing Uv It at the Bergen Kunsthall, Bergen, Norway (2015), Theater Objects at the LUMA Foundation, Zurich, Switzerland, nature after nature, Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany, and Pool, Kestnergesellschaft, Hanover, Germany (all 2014).

Magali Reus is also producing a limited edition art work for The Hepworth Wakefield’s limited edition series of original art works. The limited edition cast of a broken tea cup, without handle or bottom, reprises an object that appears in several of the works in her exhibition and will be offered at an introductory price of £400 until 2 August, after which the edition will cost £440.