When the Victoria and Albert Museum’s newest branch (V&A East) opens in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in east London next month, visitors will be greeted by a monumental sculpture by London-based artist Thomas J Price. place beyondThe 18-foot-tall bronze statue stands to the left of the museum’s entrance and is Price’s tallest sculpture to date.
Like many of Price’s most famous works, place beyond Depicts a young black man wearing casual modern clothing. She is holding a mobile phone – a recurring feature in Price’s work – looking calmly into the distance, her face cold and empty, her posture almost regal. According to a statement from the museum, the women in Price’s sculptures were “created through a fusion of images, 3D scans and observations” rather than depicting a specific individual.
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“This commission is particularly meaningful to me because I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum with my mother as a child and it shaped much of my criticism of the museum’s collections,” Price said in a statement. “I’m delighted to be part of the next chapter in the development of the Victoria and Albert Museum in East London.”
Price’s work has been exhibited in museums and outdoor public spaces around the world, from Sydney, Australia, to Florence, Italy, to Reno, Nevada. In the summer of 2025, his 12-foot-tall sculpture Rooted in the starsInstalled in New York City’s Times Square for six weeks, it became the subject of social media posts, many with overtly racist undertones.
Online and in-person responses wrote art newsAlex Greenberger at the time “suggested Rooted in the stars It struck a nerve with a section of the public who would rather not see a monument like this. This is a deeply troubling and deeply flawed position. “
smaller version of both place beyond and Rooted in the stars In 2023, these works were included in Price’s exhibition “Beyond Measure” at Hauser & Wirth in downtown Los Angeles.
