GHOSTS These paintings were inspired by analog video art from the 70s, the green screen chromakey effect, old beige plastic computer monitors, spring air, Hana Zagorova, California and dead technology. When computers die do they leave a ghost? When we pass through a room, do we leave some essence behind, some ectoplasm like the trail of a snail? A still life is made up of objects, usually on a table, and their relationship with the surrounding space. I’m interested in the way objects see the world, how people become phantoms in the world of plants, how the speed of technological change forces us to abandon our old machines. The way the objects around us become dispensable reminds us that we are too. Are computers more important than people? Do we use our tools or do our tools use us? And what about love? Can it find a place among the ruins? Surrounded by old junk, everything becomes ghostly. Lawrence Wells (1965) studied painting at Indiana University, and received his MFA from the University of Mississippi (1992). He has lived in Prague for more than 13 years and has exhibited at a number of galleries, both in the Czech Republic and in the USA.
Duchové K mým obrazům mě inspiroval analogový video art ze 70. let, zelené klíčovací pozadí, staré béžové počítačové monitory, jarní vzduch, Hana Zagorová, Kalifornie a zastaralé technologie. Když počítače umřou, zůstane po nich duch? Když projdeme místností, zůstává za námi nějaká esence, nějaká ektoplazma jako cestička za slimákem? Zátiší se sestává z předmětů, obvykle rozmístěných na stole, a z jejich vztahu k okolnímu prostoru. Zajímá mě, jak předměty vidí svět, jak se lidé ve světě květin stávají fantomy, jak nás rychlost technologických proměn nutí zbavovat se starých přístrojů. To, jak se předměty kolem nás stávají postradatelnými nám připomíná, že my jsme na tom stejně. Jsou počítače důležitější než lidé? Používáme nástroje my nebo nástroje používají nás? A co láska? Najde si místo mezi ruinami? Vše se obklopeno starým harampádím proměňuje v duchy. Lawrence Wells (1965) studoval malbu na Indiana University, MFA získal na University of Mississippi (1992). V Praze žije více jak 13 let, vystavuje v mnoha galeriích u nás i v USA.
Lawrence Wells http://lwells.tumblr.com/
Chlumová 20 13000 Praha 3, Czech Republic +420 737 00 27 93
[email protected]
b. 1965 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama; permanent resident in Prague, Czech Republic since 2001
EDUCATION Resident – Meetfactory, Prague, Czech Republic - 2007–2008 University of Mississippi, Oxford, MS MFA in Painting - 1992 Indiana University, Bloomington, IN BFA in Painting - 1987 SELECTED EXHIBITIONS 2014 “Ghosts”, Galerie Prokopka, Prague, Czech Republic - solo show 2014 “Konec/The End”, Galerie Kytka, Prague, Czech Republic - solo show 2013 “Kulturní událost/Cultural Event”, Berlinskej model, Prague, Czech Republic - solo show 2013 “Global Locals”, Galerie NTK, Prague, Czech Republic 2013 “Moon Monkey Candle”, Galerie AM180, Prague, Czech Republic 2012 “Astronauts”. Galerie Ve dvoře, Litoměříce, Czech Republic – solo show 2012 “My Wildlife as an Animal”, Abrazo Interno Gallery, New York, NY– group show 2012 “Ape and Essence”, Berlinskej model, Prague, Czech Republic – solo show 2009 Marathon, Prague, Czech Republic – solo show 2007 Exit Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic – solo show 2004 Alternatiff Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic – solo show 2001 “Fuji Fox Freedom”, Millenium Film, New York, NY – group show 1997 Mermaid Gallery, New Orleans, LA – solo show 1996 Two Painters, Positive Space Gallery, New Orleans, LA – group show
Ghosts, 2014 oil on canvas, 120 x 150 cm
Monitor, Nude and Rose, 2014 oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm
Hana Zagorová, TV and Skull, 2014 oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm
Skull on a TV, 2014 oil on canvas, 90 x 70 cm
ink drawings various sizes
Ghosts (study), 2014 acrylic on paper, 65 x 50 cm
Monitor and Spool, 2014 ink on paper, 65 x 50 cm
STUPID COMPUTER These works, developed in the fall of 2014, grew out of themes present in the Ghosts/ Green Screen paintings. In these works the common experience of sitting or standing at a computer for many hours is satirized and revealed to be just about as stupid as we all know it is. And yet we keep doing it, fascinated by the internet’s steady stream of information and banal clickery. The position of the body in relation to the computer is one that fascinates me, as we generally hunch over in front of the screen as if taking communion at a kind of shrine, the dispenser of the morning email. The memento mori altars I have been constructing, still lifes as symbolic landscapes, find an analogy in the computer desk and within the “desktop” itself. One primary issue in the adoption of new technology is the way we often don’t recognize what we are losing in the trade. Are you smarter than your smartphone? And always the underlying question remains, in terms of cybernetics and connectivity in the period of late Capitalism: Who is using who? If computers are replacing people, we have to wonder who is truly stupid? And yet, in an absurdist world, we can only laugh and remember, it’s only a machine. At least for now.
Standing Desk (Early Adopter), 2014 oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm
At the Computer, 2014 oil on canvas, 120 x 85 cm
Monitor and Mirror, 2014 oil on canvas, 80 x 60 cm
Monitor and Skull, 2014 oil on camvas, 85 x 60 cm
