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READ ME
A solo exhibition of new work by Steven Solomon AKA Speed Paste Robot
November 2nd - 24th
Opening Reception: Friday, November 2nd 7-10pm
I just can't get over the Batman 1966 fight scenes: POW. BAM. What if your interior moments were choreographed as wire-work battles?
Wayfarers is pleased to present READ ME, a solo exhibition of the latest series of text-based paintings on paper by Steven Solomon AKA Speed Paste Robot. READ ME will be a voyage into the deepest recesses of this comic book-obsessed mind, displayed on the walls of our main space throughout the month of November, 2019. The exhibit will kick off with a teaser table at Comic Arts Brooklyn at Pratt Institute on Saturday, November 2nd at 11 am, festooned with stickers, t-shirts and small works. Our official opening begins later that evening at 7 pm at Wayfarers' homebase on the border of Bushwick and Bed/Stuy at 1109 Dekalb Ave (a quick trip up Lafayette from Pratt and CAB).
I do believe that a comics-panel combination of words and pictures are the way we really experience dreams, the unconscious and the most deeply held parts of our existence.
As Speed Paste Robot, Steven makes spontaneous, ink-splattered paintings on paper which employ blocks of bold text as both compositional anchors and content generators. Sampled imagery features Godzilla in various iterations, jetpack flames punctuated by Aramaic prayers, eavesdropped fragments of conversations and, of course, the familiar ad copy from the back pages of old comic books. READ ME will include works in a range of sizes, from a grid of small notebooks to several 15 foot scrolls.
Think: If Yiddish vaudeville and Creature Double Feature were the emotional parents of stream of consciousness visual poems about mortality.
Steven Solomon, (b. NYC 1961)
I'm a visual artist who studied sculpture and created a series of cartoon-influenced figurative work through the early 2000s. My work since the middle of that decade has morphed into text-based painting.
My father was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2004. He had seizures and the glioblastoma affected the language center of his brain almost immediately. It was like a war where the enemy cuts communication lines in the opening battle.
The aphasia affected his ability to use the correct words, or to find words at all. He had been a great storyteller and talker in general. He also loved Radio Shack-type electronic gear. One day, before he was properly diagnosed, a doctor held up a battery and asked my father to identify it. He could not remember the word "battery".
After he died, it took me several years to find my footing in art-making again. There was something about ordinary language that had changed for me and finding a way to live and create again was not a straight path. When I did begin making new paintings in earnest, they were word paintings. Text had taken the place of figures, had become the figures.
One detail: as a mourner reciting the Kaddish daily, I utilized the Artscroll prayer book, which has Hebrew, phonetic Hebrew and English translations running alongside one another. The intertextual tension remained with me.
READ ME opens November 2, 7-10pm at Wayfarers, 1109 Dekalb Ave. Brooklyn NY, 11221
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POPPING UP FROM OUR EXCHANGE PROGRAM:
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Monolithic Identity
New work by Art Lab TOKYO/AKIBA
Tesshin lino
Yoshiya Hongo
Syuta Mitomo
Opening: Friday, October 25, 2019 7-9 pm
On view: Saturday and Sunday October 26-27, 1-5 pm
About Art Lab TOKYO/AKIBA
Art Lab TOKYO/AKIBA was established in 2005 as the Gallery Ginza GeijutsuKenkyujo(G3), which is operated and directed by artists and focuses primarily on exhibition and project planning. Art Lab is also actively involved in international artist exchange exhibitions, and have exhibited with collectives in the US, UK, Taiwan, South Korea, Canada, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands. In October, three Japanese artists will visit and exhibit at Wayfarers. In November, Wayfarers artists will go to Tokyo to exhibit at Art Lab. Art Lab TOKYO/AKIBA's mission: We hope to increase the depth of expression by interacting through works and learning and understanding each other's culture and thoughts.
The Wayfarers Exchange Program
With a goal of expanding our community to artists outside of Brooklyn and the US, the members of Wayfarers have initiated partnerships with other artist-run spaces and collectives. These collaborations involve Wayfarers offering its gallery to the partner organization and vice versa. Exchanges typically develop over a period of at least a year in advance of the exhibition. During that time, the participating Wayfarers members meet regularly to co-produce the event, which often involves developing new work in response to the exchange space, exchange country and collaborating artists. The pop-ups are planned as bottom-up, artist-run and artist-curated events.
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- Syuta Mitomo
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