B. Wurtz
02 Nov 2013 - 11 Jan 2014
B. WURTZ
2 November 2013 – 11 January 2014
Galerija Gregor Podnar is proud to announce the first solo exhibition of the US, New York-based artist B. Wurtz.
B. Wurtz will present a selection of recent and new works in the exhibition. For four decades, Wurtz has been creating sculptures that use every day materials to explore and deflate issues of the heroic, monumentality and the sublime, among other things. His is a sculpture that humbly yet firmly seeks to dismantle the conventions of his plastic discipline. The selection of his materials is governed by the three basic necessities of life: food, clothing and shelter. Although his work might initially seem to be improvised from the random flotsam and jetsam of daily life, his carefully wrought sculptures invariably feature elements from these domains. Created with great attention to the palette of his materials, Wurtz brings an almost pop painterly regard to the composition of his objects. He is no less attentive to the supposed fragility of his material, which he treats with a disarming fastidiousness. Occasionally evocative of mandalas or reliquaries, his production can possess a religious quality, which is nevertheless challenged by the playfulness of the work. Nothing is ever straightforward in B. Wurtz' art. For while he might confer a certain dignity upon the refuse of our most essential needs, it is never that simple. Any ennobling that takes place in what Wurtz does is not without a sense of the absurd and an impulse to deflate, potentially reminding us that even our most basic needs, not to mention art – and especially garbage – should never be taken too seriously. (Chris Sharp)
B. Wurtz was born in Pasadena, California in 1948 and lives in New York City. He studied at the University of California at Berkeley from 1970 and California Institute of the Arts, Valencia from 1980. Recent exhibitions include his solo show at Kate MacGarry, London, 'Café Horizon (You slowly look around now – hold it)', Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung, Hohenlockstedt, Germany, 'Prague Biennale', 'Recent Works', Metro Pictures, New York, all in 2013, 'Bulletin Boards, Venus Over Manhattan, New York in 2012, B. Wurtz & Co., Richard Telles Gallery, Los Angeles in 2012 and Moment – Ynglingagatan 1, Moderna Museet, Stockholm in 2011. In 2012, he was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant.
2 November 2013 – 11 January 2014
Galerija Gregor Podnar is proud to announce the first solo exhibition of the US, New York-based artist B. Wurtz.
B. Wurtz will present a selection of recent and new works in the exhibition. For four decades, Wurtz has been creating sculptures that use every day materials to explore and deflate issues of the heroic, monumentality and the sublime, among other things. His is a sculpture that humbly yet firmly seeks to dismantle the conventions of his plastic discipline. The selection of his materials is governed by the three basic necessities of life: food, clothing and shelter. Although his work might initially seem to be improvised from the random flotsam and jetsam of daily life, his carefully wrought sculptures invariably feature elements from these domains. Created with great attention to the palette of his materials, Wurtz brings an almost pop painterly regard to the composition of his objects. He is no less attentive to the supposed fragility of his material, which he treats with a disarming fastidiousness. Occasionally evocative of mandalas or reliquaries, his production can possess a religious quality, which is nevertheless challenged by the playfulness of the work. Nothing is ever straightforward in B. Wurtz' art. For while he might confer a certain dignity upon the refuse of our most essential needs, it is never that simple. Any ennobling that takes place in what Wurtz does is not without a sense of the absurd and an impulse to deflate, potentially reminding us that even our most basic needs, not to mention art – and especially garbage – should never be taken too seriously. (Chris Sharp)
B. Wurtz was born in Pasadena, California in 1948 and lives in New York City. He studied at the University of California at Berkeley from 1970 and California Institute of the Arts, Valencia from 1980. Recent exhibitions include his solo show at Kate MacGarry, London, 'Café Horizon (You slowly look around now – hold it)', Arthur Boskamp-Stiftung, Hohenlockstedt, Germany, 'Prague Biennale', 'Recent Works', Metro Pictures, New York, all in 2013, 'Bulletin Boards, Venus Over Manhattan, New York in 2012, B. Wurtz & Co., Richard Telles Gallery, Los Angeles in 2012 and Moment – Ynglingagatan 1, Moderna Museet, Stockholm in 2011. In 2012, he was awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant.