In addition to the five new Plexiglas gridworks on view, our presentation includes a limited-edition etching by Gaines in support of ‘Moving Chains,’ the artist’s upcoming public art project with Creative Time.
In the new works, Gaines has reversed his signature process of layering for the first time since he began the Plexiglas series in 1986 – printing enlarged photographic details of a tree on top of the Plexiglas instead of on the work’s back panel. This new approach brings the tree’s shadowy branches to the foreground and obscures the brightly colored, numbered grid painted below it.
2022
Acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, lacquer, wood
152.4 x 210.2 x 14.6 cm / 60 x 82 3/4 x 5 3/4 in
2022
Acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, lacquer, wood
152.4 x 210.2 x 14.6 cm / 60 x 82 3/4 x 5 3/4 in
The image of the tree has been central to the artist‘s work since the mid-1970s and his methodical examination of their form continues in this new iteration of the series, which is inspired by the immense trees he encountered during a trip to Dorset, England in early 2020.
2022
Acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, lacquer, wood
152.4 x 210.2 x 14.6 cm / 60 x 82 3/4 x 5 3/4 in
Created through carefully considered systems rather than through the artist’s imagination or intuition, ‘Numbers and Trees’ calls into question both the objective nature of the trees and the subjective natural and material human actions that surround them.
2022
Acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, lacquer, wood
152.4 x 210.2 x 14.6 cm / 60 x 82 3/4 x 5 3/4 in
A pivotal figure in the field of conceptual art, esteemed CalArts educator, and influential member of the Los Angeles arts community, Gaines reflects on his process saying ‘As I watch the systems and works evolve, and images being produced, I’m totally reminded that what I’m seeing is not a product of my intention but is a product of a system, and the system has a completely arbitrary relationship with the object.’
2022
Acrylic sheet, acrylic paint, lacquer, wood
152.4 x 210.2 x 14.6 cm / 60 x 82 3/4 x 5 3/4 in
In addition to the five new Plexiglas grid works on view, our presentation will include a limited-edition etching by Gaines titled ‘Notes on Social Justice: Freedman‘s Monument’ (2021). Published by Hauser & Wirth Editions and printed by Paulson Fontaine Press, the work consists of a musical score accompanied by an excerpt from Frederick Douglass’ 1876 speech given at the unveiling of the Freedman’s Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Charles Gaines (b. 1944, Charleston SC) lives and works in Los Angeles. He recently retired from the CalArts School of Art, where he was on faculty for over 30 years, and established a fellowship to provide critical scholarship support for Black students in the M.F.A. Art program. Gaines has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in the United States and around the world, most notably a mid-career survey at the Pomona College Museum of Art and the Pitzer College Art Gallery in Claremont CA, as well as a museum survey of his Gridwork at The Studio Museum, Harlem NY, and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles CA.
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