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Brian Willmont
Neuromancer
Gurerro Gallery
1465 Custer Ave
San Francisco, CA

Jan 14 – Feb 4, 2017

At a time in which all painting and perhaps all art being made in any form must negotiate the myriad of ways in which it relates to and will be annexed within the digital sphere, both Brian Willmont and Joe Roberts present two very different negotiations of how analog painters respond to such a quandary. In a reverberation of Marshall Mcluhan’s prescient mantra, “medium is the message” - the textures, tools, and means of applying paint, or the decision to use paint in any manner, tells us as much about a given artists take on the role of the digital within their created universe as any content might. Analog painting can act as both a rejection of the importance of the annexation of our daily lives by the virtual, while also serving as a form of continuity, mediating our collective histories with the new technologies and possibilities confronting us each day.

The work of New York based painter Brian Willmont pulls from the latter impulse, creating delicately constructed paintings that wield the immense potential of the airbrush as a primary tool within contemporary painting. What was once an instrument of craft used by photo retouchers, automotive detailers and sci-fi artists crafting images of an imagined tomorrow - the airbrush carries a renewed momentum and relevance as a tool within the realm of contemporary art. Perhaps this is due to the fact that the airbrush functions as that awkward linkage between analog and virtual spaces, existing simultaneously as one of the more recent inventions of physically applying pigment to a surface as well as a primary tool used within the culturally-ubiquitous virtual confines of Photoshop. Willmont’s work could perhaps best be summarized by that oft-thrown around adjective describing meticulous processes or a carelessly fluid handling of paint - “slick”. Willmont’s paintings almost perform “slickness” in painting as a visual pun, with faux water droplets adorning the facade of a flattened rose. Flatness and the annexation of painting space by the virtual are constant themes in the artist’s work, perhaps most clearly shown through certain elements being carefully reproduced across a composition as if duplicated over and over through Photoshop, questioning the ways in which the logic of the virtual has seeped into that of the analog. Willmont has also taken to exploring the intersections of painting and installation, constructing immersive wall works that use a plastering of digitally manipulated wall paper mimicking the pattern of an analog painting hung on said wallpaper, camouflaging the latter into the former thereby questioning the authenticity of the original while exploring the tension between analog and digital. Willmont’s subject matter capitalizes on cliche, often through floral associations that both reference the weight of the flower in western art history, while also serving as cheaply distributed symbolic markers for the unquantifiable. On the subject Willmont mentions that, “these symbols become decorative and overwhelming representations of longing. An emptiness that attracts love, sex, drugs, alcohol, food, shopping, social media, TV etc., and is ruled by emotion and dopamine hits.” Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont Brian Willmont  Brian Willmont Brian Willmont        

 


Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on canvas
60 x 48 inches
Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on canvas
48 x 38 inches
Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on canvas
44 x 32 inches
  Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on panel
32 x 32 inches
Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on panel
32 x 32 inches
Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on panel
20 x 16 inches
Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on panel
20 x 16 inches
Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on panel in artists frame
21 5/5 x 17 1/2 inches
Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on panel in artists frame
21 5/5 x 17 1/2 inches
Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on panel in artists frame
21 5/5 x 17 1/2 inches
Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on panel in artists frame
21 5/5 x 17 1/2 inches
Untitled, 2016
Acrylic on panel in artists frame
21 5/5 x 17 1/2 inches
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