Parisian gallery Praz-Delavallade debuts their new Los Angeles outpost with a solo show dedicated to the latest works by local talent Brian Wills. Revealing a group of thread-based works, Line + Light runs till 28 October. Wills’ oeuvre explores the relationship between tensile piano wires and surfboard-smooth surfaces. Colour-blocked in various combinations, the artist employs a detailed, almost obsessive, process, wrapping thousands of threads on various bases: monographic planes or natural wood shadow boxes. The metaphysically minimalist results achieve paradoxical conditions of controlled chaos.
The interplay of 3D form and 2D iconography asks the onlooker to considering the space they occupy; to step outside themselves and watch themselves watching. The latest works split into three different iterations. The first hovers rayon thread over oak and walnut shadow boxes. The second takes this first step further by painting the wood in solid monotones. The third embeds rather than suspends thread. Wills’ work can be found at Metro Pictures gallery, Underground Museum Los Angeles, Torrance Art Museum, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and The Estee Lauder Collection in New York.
Light + Line: till 28 October
Praz Delavallade: 6150 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles
Line + Light
Untitled (Light Blue Hovering Thread), 2017
single-strand rayon and metallic thread on vertical
grain oak
12 x 12 in
(30,5 x 30,5 cm)
BW17P28
Untitled (Light Blue Hovering Thread), 2017
single-strand rayon and metallic thread on vertical
grain oak
12 x 12 in
(30,5 x 30,5 cm)
BW17P28
Untitled (Tomato Red Hovering Thread), 2017
single-strand rayon and metallic thread on vertical
grain oak
12 x 12 in
(30,5 x 30,5 cm)
BW17P31
Untitled (Yellow Hovering Thread), 2017
single-strand rayon and metallic thread on vertical
grain oak
12 x 12 in
(30,5 x 30,5 cm)
BW17P30
Untitled (Avocado Green Hovering Thread), 2017
single-strand rayon and metallic thread on vertical
grain oak
12 x 12 in
(30,5 x 30,5 cm)
BW17P29
Untitled (White Hovering Thread), 2017
single-strand rayon and metallic thread on vertical
grain oak
12 x 12 in
(30,5 x 30,5 cm)
BW17P26
Untitled (Steel Blue Hovering Thread), 2017
single-strand rayon and metallic thread on vertical
grain oak
24 x 72 in
(61 x 182,9 cm)
BW17P17
Untitled (Orange to Green Progression), 2017
single-strand rayon thread and oil on basswood
36 x 12 in
(91,4 x 30,5 cm)
BW17P20
Untitled (Orange to Green Progression), 2017
single-strand rayon thread and oil on basswood
36 x 12 in
(91,4 x 30,5 cm)
BW17P20
Untitled (Red and Blue banded hovering thread), 2017
single-strand rayon thread on vertical grain oak
36 x 36 in
(91,4 x 91,4 cm)
BW17P13
Untitled (Black, Grey, Blue and Yellow Hovering Thread),
2017
single-strand rayon thread and oil on vertical grain oak
24 x 72 in
(61 x 182,9 cm)
BW17P19
Untitled (Vertical Stack), 2017
single-strand rayon and metallic thread on wood, 6
panels
77 x 12 in
(195,6 x 30,5 cm)
BW17P18
Untitled (Pastel band and hovering thread), 2017
single-strand rayon thread on vertical grain oak
36 x 36 in
(91,4 x 91,4 cm)
BW17P12