Kunsthaus Bregenz presents Wade Guyton, GuytonWalker, Kelley Walker on view through 30 June 2013.
The timing of the simultaneous Wade Guyton, GuytonWalker, Kelley Walker presentation could not be better. All three have been acclaimed in major solo exhibitions at eminent institutions in recent years and the intellectual and critical reception of their works is unanimous in its praise of the three distinct positions.
This exhibition is their first exclusive joint appearance and is thus all the more excitedly awaited. In contrast to their earlier practice in this show they will dispense with a segregation of the three artistic personae, which is otherwise strictly observed.
Surprising at first perhaps, a convincing logic nevertheless underlies this separation. For it simultaneously displays, underpins, and calls into question the concept of authorship, the role of which is not to be underestimated in the work of Wade Guyton and Kelley Walker. This is closely connected with topics such as authenticity and the duplication of the autonomous artwork in the form of editions or other types of multiple production and distribution.
Both Wade Guyton and Kelley Walker make use of found signs and images, which they transfer to canvas or wood panels as ink-jet or screen prints or transform into sculptures and installations.
Here too in GuytonWalker we find motifs from high and low culture. But from this the duo often develops paintings, objects, and installations that play with an impression of provisionality, chaos, the unfinished. Images and forms migrate and mutate. A painting may become a can, a sheet of printed drywall or a table.
The exhibition at Kunsthaus Bregenz presents a selection of Wade Guyton’s well-known X and stripe pictures, as well as Kelley Walker’s now legendary brick paintings and Rorschach works. All three personae have also developed new works.The presentation will avoid strict segregation of the three in favor of an interplay designed to bring out their similarities and differences. Above all, though, this deliberately fiery show values dialogue—not just between the three artists, but also with the public, whom it seduces in a way that is both intellectually and aesthetically entertaining.
Kunsthaus Bregenz
Karl-Tizian-Platz
6900 Bregenz
Austria
www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at.