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- 10 - 19
Jack Fischer Gallery is pleased to present SF Made in China by Timothy Wells, the artist’s first show with the gallery. This exhibition features ultra-realistic representations of cardboard remnants and metal wire that the artist finds as he walks through San Francisco’s Chinatown neighborhood. All that he finds has its own story, full of vestiges of its use and original function. Wells recognizes the history this detritus carries with it. As he rescues this discard and through his paintings, he renews and sings their praises, in a way that was probably never intended by the original graphic designer responsible. We wish they could see the rebirth.
Wells casually refers to his new collection as his “trash paintings”. “My watercolors focus on the history of these discarded objects,” Wells says. “Shipped overseas, tossed from truck to truck, ripped apart, and even burned, I like to allow the handling and abuse of the cardboard to be visible.”
Each piece averages 22 inches by 30 inches with Wells primarily using watercolor and gouache, along with bits of pigment ink, on paper mounted to archival boards. Generally we experience watercolors as light, airy, and ethereal. Not these. Wells’ are tight and constrained, solid.
Do paintings of urban waste “mean” anything? While Wells says he paints only with aesthetics in mind, he admits people tend to apply their own observations of consumerism, globalization, Chinese manufacturing and our reliance upon disposable objects onto these works.
Artist:
Timothy Wells is a self-taught tromp l’oeil, landscape and postage stamp artist specializing in representational subject matter and creating illusions on paper. Wells's work hangs in private and corporate collections throughout the United States, as well as at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA.
311 Potrero Ave. San Francisco, CA, 94103
