On February 22nd, Jack Shainman Gallery in New York will open a solo exhibition of all new works by Leslie Wayne, marking impressive 25 years since her 1st showcase with the gallery. What’s Inside will be the German-born artist's 11th show with the gallery and will present the continuation of her efforts to manipulate the medium of painting by approaching oil paint as a sculptural material.
As introduced with her Free Experience showcase back in 2017 and Paint/Rags body of work before that, Wayne is interested in "exploring the ways in which painting as an object could force a re-examining of the term painting." Aiming to step away from the historical precedent of a painting, which is a picture on a two-dimensional surface, she is successfully attributing new features to the familiar artistic material. Through scraping, folding, cutting, and building up the surface, the artist constructs three-dimensional forms with layers, varying textures, and colors. These rich textures evoke the experience of geology and natural phenomena, creating the aspect of time to the works and adding to the authenticity of the object's appearance.
In the newest body of work, the artist continued the work on building windows and similar architectural structures using oil and acrylic on wood. Crating shattered glass effects, boarded passages, blinds, curtains, and playing with the effect of depth and reflection, these pieces eventually evolved in more elaborate, series of sculptural, furniture-like objects. Accentuating movement and instability these new pieces play with perspective and point of view, introducing a new step in the ongoing evolution of the artist's unique practice. Made entirely of paint, with colors and patterns being layered surface applications of the otherwise flat medium, Wayne is now building large closets, bookshelves, semi-opened spaces, cleverly combining tremendous technical painting skills and painting-sculptural "tricks" developed in her previous work. —Sasha Bogojev
