Paul Wackers: Day Tripper
SOCO Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Day Tripper, a solo exhibition by artist Paul Wackers featuring new paintings and works on paper. The gallery will host a public opening reception with the artist on March 5th from 5 - 7 PM. This will be the artist鈥檚 铿乺st exhibition with the gallery.
A spur-of-the-moment excursion, a day trip involves little planning but much possibility. Bracketed between morning and night, the outing is brief, but a diversion from routine nonetheless鈥攐ne in which the tripper sets aside real time for awareness, curiosity, and chance, even close to home.
The paintings in Day Tripper both capture and invite a sense of the traveler鈥檚 refreshed attention. In Wackers鈥� vision, familiar objects are wildly reimagined through heightened color, varying textures, and a m茅lange of forms. The resulting compositions vibrate with organic energy, even when their subjects are static. In 鈥淭roubles at the bodega: options and wants,鈥� vessels and houseplants sit beside painterly abstractions and hallucinatory images, emphasizing the title鈥檚 distinction between what鈥檚 available鈥攖he stuff of the concrete world鈥攁nd what鈥檚 desired鈥攖he bodega鈥檚 impossible, imagined offerings.
Wackers has long shown an interest in forgoing the human figure in favor of 鈥渢hings,鈥� remarking, 鈥淥nce you put a person into a painting鈥攖hat becomes the subject. I don鈥檛 want to do that. I like to set the stage.鈥� By depicting settings whose human counterparts have left the building, Wackers continues the project of still life painting, in which the accouterments of daily living become symbols and ciphers for a range of ideas, emotions, and perceptive states.
The captured states on display range from the naturalistic to the altered, often within a single work, as in Wackers鈥� striking red monochromes and playful approach to perspective. A flattened tabletop seen from above contains forms rendered in profile, skewing the work鈥檚 spatial logic and puzzling our vantage as viewers. In Wackers鈥� words, these tabletops double as 鈥渕aps or even board games; spaces in which actions can take place.鈥� In 鈥淭rip Planning,鈥� art objects and other d茅cor direct the eye through a choose-your-own compositional adventure, wherein a bold black line enlivens the scene with suggested movement. Considered in the context of physical action, to 鈥渢rip鈥� also means to stumble; to lose one鈥檚 footing on a hidden obstacle. As in painting itself, 鈥淭rip Planning鈥� implies that, even when following a map, only so much can be plotted beforehand.
To the sensorily-attuned day tripper, a shelf of trinkets becomes a museum in miniature; a floral arrangement a phantasmagoric display. In paying equal attention to the micro and the macro, the real and the dreamt, Day Tripper serves as a vibrant reminder of the visual feast we live inside, if only we choose to see it.
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SOCO Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Day Tripper, a solo exhibition by artist Paul Wackers featuring new paintings and works on paper. The gallery will host a public opening reception with the artist on March 5th from 5 - 7 PM. This will be the artist鈥檚 铿乺st exhibition with the gallery.
A spur-of-the-moment excursion, a day trip involves little planning but much possibility. Bracketed between morning and night, the outing is brief, but a diversion from routine nonetheless鈥攐ne in which the tripper sets aside real time for awareness, curiosity, and chance, even close to home.
The paintings in Day Tripper both capture and invite a sense of the traveler鈥檚 refreshed attention. In Wackers鈥� vision, familiar objects are wildly reimagined through heightened color, varying textures, and a m茅lange of forms. The resulting compositions vibrate with organic energy, even when their subjects are static. In 鈥淭roubles at the bodega: options and wants,鈥� vessels and houseplants sit beside painterly abstractions and hallucinatory images, emphasizing the title鈥檚 distinction between what鈥檚 available鈥攖he stuff of the concrete world鈥攁nd what鈥檚 desired鈥攖he bodega鈥檚 impossible, imagined offerings.
Wackers has long shown an interest in forgoing the human figure in favor of 鈥渢hings,鈥� remarking, 鈥淥nce you put a person into a painting鈥攖hat becomes the subject. I don鈥檛 want to do that. I like to set the stage.鈥� By depicting settings whose human counterparts have left the building, Wackers continues the project of still life painting, in which the accouterments of daily living become symbols and ciphers for a range of ideas, emotions, and perceptive states.
The captured states on display range from the naturalistic to the altered, often within a single work, as in Wackers鈥� striking red monochromes and playful approach to perspective. A flattened tabletop seen from above contains forms rendered in profile, skewing the work鈥檚 spatial logic and puzzling our vantage as viewers. In Wackers鈥� words, these tabletops double as 鈥渕aps or even board games; spaces in which actions can take place.鈥� In 鈥淭rip Planning,鈥� art objects and other d茅cor direct the eye through a choose-your-own compositional adventure, wherein a bold black line enlivens the scene with suggested movement. Considered in the context of physical action, to 鈥渢rip鈥� also means to stumble; to lose one鈥檚 footing on a hidden obstacle. As in painting itself, 鈥淭rip Planning鈥� implies that, even when following a map, only so much can be plotted beforehand.
To the sensorily-attuned day tripper, a shelf of trinkets becomes a museum in miniature; a floral arrangement a phantasmagoric display. In paying equal attention to the micro and the macro, the real and the dreamt, Day Tripper serves as a vibrant reminder of the visual feast we live inside, if only we choose to see it.
Artists on show
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A spur-of-the-moment excursion, a day trip involves little planning but much possibility.
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