KUB 2013.02 | Press release Wade Guyton Guyton\Walker Kelley Walker 27|04—30|06|2013 Curators of the exhibition Yilmaz Dziewior and Rudolf Sagmeister Press Conference Thursday, April 25, 12 noon The exhibition is opened for the press at 11 a.m. Opening Friday, April 26, 2013, 7 p.m. Page 1 | 24 The timing of the simultaneous Wade Guyton, Guyton\Walker, 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 joint appearance and is thus all the more excitedly awaited. In contrast to their earlier practice—and many see this alone as a minor sensation— in this show they will dispense with a segregation of the three artistic personae, which is otherwise strictly ob- served. But why talk of three »persons« here at all? Wade Guyton and Kelley Walker have often exhibited together, yet until now they have seen to it that the duo’s activities were ring-fenced from their individual careers. Wade Guyton and Kelley Walker, for instance, both exhibited in the That’s the way we do it group exhibition at the Kunsthaus Bregenz in 2011, but it would never have entered their heads to ex- hibit as a duo in the same show. The artists have always thought of Guyton\Walker as a separate artist, not as a side project, and as such has different gallery representation from either Guyton or Walker. Surprising at first perhaps, a convincing logic nevertheless underlies this separation. For it simultaneously displays, underpins, and calls into question the concept of author- ship, 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 duplica- tion of the autonomous artwork in the form of editions or other types of multiple production and distribution. What makes an artistic signature recognizable? How does a sig- nature style come about? And how can the cult of genius often connected with such a style be avoided without au- tomatically introducing the idea of the death of the author? On the face of it, in relation to the works of Wade Guyton and Kelley Walker, these questions are vexing, for the so- called artist’s individual hand is often modified in their works through the use of the computer. By means of un- conventional production techniques, however, the two art- ists develop highly individual pictorial languages that com- bine allusions to commerce and advertising culture with liberal quotations from Modernist art—particularly pop art in this case—and which alternate between analog and digit- al media. Page 2 | 24 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 sculp- tures and installations. Here too, in Guyton\Walker, we find motifs from high and low culture. Like Wade Guyton and Kelley Walker, Guyton\Walker work with different spatial levels and divergent references. But from this the duo of- ten develops paintings, objects, and installations that play with an impression of provisionality, chaos, the unfinished. Images and forms migrate and mutate. A painting may be- come a can, a sheet of printed drywall or a table. And the table may become a mattress or even a painting again. Three parallel solo exhibitions have been developed for the Kunsthaus Bregenz, presenting to a broad public a se- lection 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 artists will also be develop- ing new works for the presentation. The presentation will avoid strict segregation of the three producers in favor of an interplay designed to bring out their similarities and differences. This may of course also involve concentrating on certain groups of works or on one particular artist on a particular floor. The dynamic relation between concept and visuality is the common thread run- ning through the entire exhibition. 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 enter- taining. Text: Yilmaz Dziewior Page 3 | 24 KUB Billboards Wade Guyton, Guyton\Walker, Kelley Walker 15 | 04 – 30 | 06 | 2013 Seestraße Bregenz For the KUB Billboards Guyton\Walker chose two works each by Wade Guyton, Guyton\Walker, and Kelley Walker from the Kunsthaus Bregenz exhibition. A pattern by Guyton\Walker serves as foreground and common thread running through all six billboards. Works by the artists have been printed behind it, sometimes rather cryptically, sometimes conspicuously. The result is an optical play of abstract patterns, foreground and background, advertising, recognizable objects and arrangements, individual author- ship, and joint designs. Page 4 | 24 KUB Publication Wade Guyton, Guyton\Walker, Kelley Walker This publication accompanying the exhibition is the first to focus on the three separate artistic positions of Wade Guyton, Guyton\Walker, and Kelley Walker jointly. The presentation enables the simultaneous examination and consideration of not just the individual positions of each artist, but also that of the artistic duo, founded in 2004. Individual authorship, along with artistic techniques and pictorial languages the duo share in common, are the sub- jects of Sam Pulitzer’s knowledgeable contribution on Wade Guyton, Quinn Latimer’s essay on Kelley Walker, as well as Jack Bankowsky’s text, introducing and locating Guyton\Walker in art historical terms. Yilmaz Dziewior’s introductory essay lays out the thinking behind the exhibi- tion’s distinctive concept. Photographs of the installation at Kunsthaus Bregenz as well as a carefully compiled appen- dix provide a comprehensive documentation of each of the three artistic positions. Wade Guyton, Guyton\Walker, Kelley Walker Edited by Yilmaz Dziewior Design by Kloepfer-Ramsey, New York Essays by Jack Bankowsky, Yilmaz Dziewior, Quinn Latimer, and Sam Pulitzer|Basko Blagojevic German|English Approx. 212 pages 24 x 30 cm Hardcover Due out: April 2013 44.– EUR KUB Online-Shop www.kunsthaus-bregenz.at Page 5 | 24 KUB Artist’s Edition Guyton\Walker Exclusive special editions for the Kunsthaus Bregenz are a result of close collaboration with artists and their produc- tion processes. In their collaborative work Guyton\Walker make use of mechanical reproduction technologies to avail themselves of the entire fund of pictures available to our society— including motifs from Wade Guyton’s and Kelley Walker’s independent practices. For their exclusive sculptural edition for the Kunsthaus Bregenz they designed 16 block-like wooden objects com- pletely covered in a printed laminate which can be traced back to a small model of a tabletop sample without legs they produced as a dummy for the show. Limes, chess- board and coarse-pixel zebra patterns intersect and blend with each other in this artist duo’s characteristic pictorial language. Guyton\Walker Color-printed laminate on wood 60.2 x 40.2 x 10.8 cm Limited edition of 16 + 2 A.P., each copy with numbered and signed certificate: 6,000.– EUR Including 10% sales tax; packaging and shipping charges extra Please contact Caroline Schneider [email protected] Phone +43-5574-485 94-444 Page 6 | 24 Biographies Wade Guyton and Kelley Walker Wade Guyton Wade Guyton was born in 1972 in Hammond, Indiana. He lives and works in New York. His work was the subject of important solo exhibitions at Artists Space, New York (2003), Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg (2005), Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (2008), Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2010), Secession, Vienna (2011), and in fall 2012 there was a survey of his art at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Recently Wade Guyton’s work has been included in group exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou, Paris (Fruits de la Passion, Project for contemporary art), Pinakothek der Mo- derne, Munich (Kunst), Kunsthaus Bregenz (That’s The Way We Do It, 2011 ), and the Museum of Modern Art, New York. Kelley Walker Kelley Walker was born in 1969 in Columbus, Georgia. He lives and works in New York. In 2007, his work was the subject of a solo exhibition at Le Magasin – Centre National d’Art Contemporain in Grenoble, France, which traveled to WIELS – Centre d’art contemporain in Brussels, Belgium. Recently, his work has been included in exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York (Print/Out), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Regarding Warhol), Martin-Groupius-Bau, Berlin (ARTandPRESS), MCA Chicago (Phantom Limb), and Kunsthaus Bregenz (That's The Way We Do It). Page 7 | 24 Works in the exhibition First floor Wade Guyton Untitled, 2011 Epson UltraChrome inkjet on linen 213.4 x 175.3 cm Private collection Wade Guyton Untitled, 2012 Epson UltraChrome inkjet on linen 213.4 x 175.3 cm Private collection Page 8 | 24 Wade Guyton Untitled, 2011 Epson UltraChrome inkjet on linen 213.4 x 175.3 cm Private collection Wade Guyton Untitled, 2011 Epson UltraChrome inkjet on linen 213.4 x 175.3 cm Private collection Wade Guyton Untitled, 2011 Epson UltraChrome inkjet on linen 213.4 x 175.3 cm Private collection Page 9 | 24 Wade Guyton Untitled, 2011 Epson UltraChrome inkjet on linen 213.4 x 175.3 cm Private collection Wade Guyton Untitled, 2008 Epson UltraChrome inkjet on linen 213.4