I’ve Seen Gray Whales Go By
I’m going to go ahead and say it. This was my favorite exhibition of 2018. Especially my favorite Gagosian exhibit. I saw it when it opened on September 13th and I saw it the day it close on October 15th.
I even received the catalogue on my birthday (four days later) and it’s just as lovely.
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“I’m interested in the experiential quality of a large painting,” she says. “Gigantic paintings that one can relate to with one’s body rather than with one’s eyes or mind.” - Mary Weatherford for LA Times
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Mary Weatherford is an LA based painter (in my dreams I imagine her and Claire Tabouret hanging out with all their cool LA friends - even though Weatherford is slightly older). Mary works with Flashe paint which according to google is:
“Is an extra fine, vinyl-based professional grade of matte permanent colors. It offers optical characteristics similar to gouache, old tempera paints and primitive painting grounds - the result is matte, velvety and opaque.” - Google
Flashe paint on linen is how she achieves such vibrant colors.
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She also just started incorporating neon tubes into her work in 2012 for her ‘Bakersfield Paintings,’ so I think we’ll see a lot more from this amazing artist.
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However, Mary wasn’t also a west coaster. She went to Princeton University where she got her B.A. She then lived in New York for a bit, working at a postcard shop where she got exposure to many artists at that time such as Robert Mapplethorpe and Jean-Michel Basquiat. (She even turned Basquiat away for not having any money to pay for the postcards)
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“When I had the idea about the lights two years ago, I realized that it was a way to make a painting about the city and about the 20th century,” Weatherford said. “It’s electricity. It’s Modernism.” - Weatherford for Art in America
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In my opinion Mary Weatherford is part of a string of female artists that big name galleries are starting to wake up to. In the wake of #metoo, the art world is putting more pressure than ever on their being more diversity in artist rosters and exhibitions, which thankfully have produced many exhibitions like this.
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Weatherford was poached in 2017 from small New York gallery, Brennan and Griffin in Redhook. She’s also had multiple shows at one of my favorite midwest galleries - Shane Campbell in Chicago, Illinois.
“I first admired Mary’s work in MoMA’s ‘The Forever Now,’ and am thrilled she has joined the gallery,” Larry Gagosian said in a statement to ARTnews.
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Weatherford is represented by the following galleries
David Kordansky Gallery in Los Angeles
Gagosian in New York and London.
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Which is your favorite? Email me at contact@marylynnbuchanan.com