Heather Gaudio Fine Art Projects is pleased to present Aaron Wexler: Everywhere You Go is a Shape, a solo exhibition featuring recent paintings and works on paper as well as a site-specific installation. The show will run June 4th-July 23rd, and the public is invited to attend the artist reception on June 11th, 3-5pm.
Wexler uses sourced materials ranging from photographs, printed imagery, illustrations, and his own drawings to create intricately collaged panels and works on paper. Each element is carefully layered and woven into a graphic framework of color, form, and varying textures. Shapes and lines reveal and conceal themselves as they navigate and compete for space on the surface. As he prepared works for the exhibition, Wexler noticed a common theme begin to emerge with the repeated use of maps and diagrams from Japanese railway stations. Making their way into several works, these place-mementos formed a fragmented structure that intertwined with other specific elements referencing nature and solid abstract shapes of color. The result became a series of 12 works on paper entitled Travelers. Each work in the set holds the exact same amount of collaged forms mixed with layers of thinly-washed and pigmented Japanese paper, making for a balanced display of works bound by a cohesive dialogue. For Wexler, these images reference physical and spatial travel, not only for their literal implications, but also for the visual journey the eye and mind take as they wander through the positive and negative spaces therein.
In addition to the optical network of color and forms, Wexler plays with texture and weight through the use of different materials. Pieces of coarse and raw canvas are juxtaposed with thinly painted, more transparent Japanese paper, suggesting a push and pull between the permanent and the ephemeral, as in Granny Cart for the Smithsonian. Two other works in the show, Bubblegum Bonfire and That’s Right, Night contrast each other in terms of palette, but a longer inspection reveals they act as duo, sharing the same motifs and silhouettes. Other works in the show are visual feasts reminiscent of modernist forms from a bygone era.
Wexler earned his BFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia and his MFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since then, he has had a prolific career and has been included in several solo and group exhibitions in New York, London, Kyoto, and Tokyo, including the Katonah Museum of Art and the National Academy Museum in New York. His work is also in many collections among which are Saatchi, Fidelity Investments, and the Mitsui Fudosan collection, among others. Wexler lives and works in New York City.
