Rachel Whiteread commissioned to create frieze for London gallery

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British artist Rachel Whiteread has been tapped to create an original work inspired by the Tree of Life to adorn the London’s Whitechapel Gallery’s historic façade.

The frieze, decked gilded leaves and branches, will be on display come June at the gallery’s main entrance in time for the London 2012 Olympic Games. The work will cost an undisclosed sum with the Art Fund as the top contributor donating more than $300,000.

Whiteread, the first women to win the Turner Prize, is best known for her monumental sculptures including ‘Ghost,’ a large plaster cast of the inside of a condemned home in London’s East End. The artist also recently showed off her more private side, exhibiting 155 of her drawings at the Hammer Museum for a show titled ‘Rachel Whiteread Drawings.”

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--Jamie Wetherbe