Billy Apple® is widely regarded as New Zealand's most significant conceptual artist.
After graduating from London’s Royal College of Art, Apple reinvented himself and sought to test the boundaries between art and life and explore himself as a 'product'. At the height of the blossoming pop art scene in the ‘60s his contemporaries included British pop artist David Hockney and late American artist Andy Warhol, with whom he exhibited in the infamous pop art exhibition, American Supermarket.
He also lent his brand to racing cars, food and beverages, corporate offices and billboard campaigns, and donated human cells for scientific research for his recent Immortalisation project. In 2007, he registered his name as a trademark.
Auckland Art Gallery is staging the largest and most comprehensive retrospective exhibition of Billy Apple's career, with more than 150 artworks on show. Alongside pop and neon light works from the 1960s, the retrospective will include a 15-metre high text work, high-performance racing motorcycles and cars, and his cells, virally transformed to live outside his body.