“Postcard Paintings” is a solo exhibition featuring works by William Wegman, an American artist. On display at the Sperone Westwater Gallery, it is located at 257 Bowery New York, NY 10002. The show will be up between March 17th, 2016 and April 23rd, 2016. The show includes a variety of paintings and mixed media works. Wegman takes postcards and books and places them on wooden panels which are then painted in ways that incorporate the existing images of those objects. Deceptively clever, the illusionistic composition Wegman creates within the pictorial plane makes the viewer consider how easy it is to fool the viewer and to be dubious. For example the work Inside Outside (2014) shows a postcard placed in the center of an oil painting. The image of a man on the postcard is then continued on the panel with oil paint. Wegman then makes the background of the rest of the postcard look as though it is a painting the wall of the room the man depicted is sitting in, keeping the white boarder of the postcard which imitates a frame. The viewer is presented with a contradiction. Can the man be in the room and the landscape? The duplicitous nature of the work causes the viewer to hesitate before any image that appears obvious visually. Wegman’s sense of humor is an element of the exhibit that becomes apparent the further you go in to the gallery. For example, the work, How--To—Do – It #3 (2015) features an encyclopedic book that appears to be from the 70s. It has been centered on the panel and depicts a late 90s image of a father fixing the television set in the living room of his house with his “mechanix illustrates” encyclopedia. Wegman, as seen with the other paintings in the show, continues the existing image of the book cover. However, he also adds a new element, a man who appears to be from ancient times stands in the background, in what looks like a mouth of a cave (paradoxically placed in the living room in the painting, with a hand lifted as though praising the man who is following the cliché, “how to” book. The show contains many engaging works. The use of objects with existing images which are then dispersed and hidden within each work makes the interaction between the art and viewer in this show extremely dynamic. Altogether, I would say “Postcard Paintings” is a show worth seeing if you are headed to the Lower East Side. Image # 1 Top
William Wegman Inside Out, 2014 oil and postcard on wood panel 30 x 40 inches SW 16047 Abrams: Illustrated p. 78 Image #2 Bottom William Wegman How -- To -- Do -- It #3, 2015 oil and mixed media on wood panel 14 1/2 x 29 1/2 inches SW 16050
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Emily B. PosnerNew York based artist and editor. Archives
November 2016
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