Exhibition of new works by the artist Wes Lang opens at Almine Rech Aspen

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Friday, March 29, 2024


Exhibition of new works by the artist Wes Lang opens at Almine Rech Aspen
Wes Lang, Big Time Believer, 2021 - Acrylic on canvas, 152.4 x 121.9 cm, 60 x 48 in / © Wes Lang - Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech - Photo: Wes Lang Studio.

by Wallace Ludel



ASPEN, CO.- Almine Rech Aspen is presenting Endless Horizons, an exhibition of new works by the artist Wes Lang. This is Lang's second solo exhibition with the gallery, on view from August 27 to September 12, 2021.

The eight canvases in Endless Horizons were all carried out in the late spring and early summer of this year, as the blunt force of the pandemic had begun to wane, leaving us to decide what lessons we will carry with us out of the scorching trauma and into the rest of our lives. “I only had about two meltdowns while painting these,” Wes told me over the phone, laughing. “I was searching for what to talk about and one late night in the studio, I painted over everything for the last time and these things started really clicking.

The succinct, mantra-like phrases in these works imbue the space with an air of optimistic wonder towards the future, and a sense of gratitude for having made it out of fire. There is Magic . . . Here it is . . . And it is just so . . . Wonderful reads No. 2 in E Minor, which takes its title from a Rachmaninoff symphony. “I feel very hopeful, I feel very excited. No matter how many times I read or write or focus on the ideas in these paintings, it's easy to forget to feel that way. And it was incredibly easy to forget to feel that way over the last year and a half,” says Wes. “I think we all need a good kick in the ass to remember how fantastic the world can be. And I’m putting myself on the top of the list of people who need a reminder.”

While skulls and other memento mori may not always be associated with hope, the iconography here does in fact serve to fuel this drive towards optimism. (Just ask the people of Bhutan—regularly ranked one of the happiest populations in the world—who live under the philosophy that to be truly happy one must think of death five times a day.) “The acceptance of death has always been a constant theme throughout my work, and these paintings acknowledge that the only way to really live is to have this understanding,” says Wes. “I just want people to remember to make the most out of their life while they have it, that's really what it's for.” One of the skulls in the triptych Results, Results Results..., rendered cheekily with its tongue sticking out, references one that the artist drew on an elementary school notebook as a child in the ‘70s. In this manner, Lang is not only looking back at the past year, but stretching his purview across the ribbon of time, from his early childhood to the yet-unknown future.

Painters who have served as Lang’s compass throughout his artistic life are also invoked. Ellsworth Kelly and Marc Rothko surface in the color planes and geometry of the compositions, while influences like Cy Twombly, James Ensor, Robert Motherwell, the Danse Macabre genre of the Middle Ages, and others all seep through the thick paint. Talking to Wes, he explains that these influences arise not through intentional emulation, but unconsciously, through countless brushes with the art that moved and became a part of him. That is to say, the work was beyond the control of Lang as an individual, left not up to the artist but to the concatenation of a lifetime’s worth of events that unfold far beyond our power. “The planning is a really great way to let the canvas show you what it really wants; how foolish I was to think I could control this,” he says of the process. If there’s any single takeaway from the past year—a year that these works aim to articulate through Lang’s visual lexicon—it’s just this: that the universe does not care about our plans, and we can either wrestle with reality for control, or we can accept it and be free.










Today's News

August 29, 2021

Amsterdam's mayor announces talks with Jewish heirs on Kandinsky claim

Judy Chicago celebrated in Nevada Museum of Art exhibition

Egypt dig uncovers 2,300-year-old settlement in Alexandria

'Cancel culture' show in Warsaw stirs controversy

Chinese Garden's new art gallery makes its debut with an inaugural exhibition featuring contemporary calligraphy

Nils Stærk opens the exhibition 'Like a Force of Nature' by SUPERFLEX

Exhibition investigates how European Gothic architecture influenced skyscrapers in the US

Columbus Museum of Art reopens Pizzuti Collection of CMA

Asian Art Museum presents first major exhibition of Korean portraiture in U.S.

Egyptians discover fossil of new amphibious whale

Exhibition explores the myriad ways to document important and complex aspects of contemporary life

End of the line looms for hawkers, rough sleepers at Bangkok station

From the shadows: the secret, threatened lives of bats

Exhibition offers a critical look at the history of the Korean War

An artist night train travels from Norway to Whitechapel Gallery

Installation presents works created by 26 artists and cooperatives based in Ukraine

Exhibition reveals the variety of fascinating roles women played on land and at sea

Xie Qi's first solo exhibition at Galerie Urs Meile presents powerful works on canvas

Exhibition raises awareness of climate crisis and endangered ecosystems

Exhibition of new works by the artist Wes Lang opens at Almine Rech Aspen

The Halsey Institute's new exhibition explores the fluid visual identity of the African diaspora

The guerrilla street artist stumping for Larry Elder

Magic Johnson's jersey worn during Lakers' legendary 1980 NBA finals win scores $1.5 million

Venice film fest returns with another blockbuster lineup

Study at colleges in Canada (IT, computer science, and technology)




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

sa gaming free credit
Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful