In-person artist's talk by TESS WEI - THURSDAY, JUNE 16th
gallery OPEN 4-6PM - Talk begins at 5PM
and on SATURDAY, JUNE 18th, the last day of the exhibition gallery OPEN from 12 Noon to 5 PM
TESS WEI will be present in the gallery. (No reservation required. Masks required at all times; no restroom available.)
ALSO OPEN by APPOINTMENT - PLEASE CALL: 215 925-5389
Suggested APPOINTMENT times TUESDAY through SATURDAY 12 to 5 PM
Masks are always required in the gallery. THANK YOU!
ARTIST STATEMENT & EXHIBITION CHECKLIST (Below):
ARTIST STATEMENT:
Through textured surfaces and limited palettes, Tess Wei considers how paintings’ formal qualities and potential meanings shift in response to changing light, vantage points, and slow looking.
In the current late-stage capitalist arena, with the rise of the vita activa over the vita contemplativa and the horizon (or continued arrival) of post-human infrastructure, what is left for lingering, resting, and contemplating? Does one need to be an overtly productive subject — rapidly ingesting and regurgitating the debris of life — in order to find and make meaning? Wei considers these questions by offering paintings whose tight tonal ranges and light-specific textures, resist quick legibility and desaturate with digital reproduction.
To invite a slowed-down looking, these compositions consider a different set of visual priorities: the blurred, the out-of-focus, the dented. Wei re-values these qualities — which are often positioned as mistakes, outcasts, human and mechanical errors — to be self-valid (in the vein of the ‘irrational cut’ of black and white screens discussed in Cinema 2: The Time-Image). These paintings offer space to temporarily release vision from the imperative of expediency, clarity, and nameability, by prioritizing a pace of looking catered toward the devalued, muddy, and monstrous (as in, the meeting of two heterogeneous elements creating something else through seams, joints, and margins). Here, lingering is a critical act against the acceleration of life-cum-global capitalism.
Wei sees their paintings as resistance against the decline of slowness, lingering, duration, (day)dreams, and rest — not rest-up for something, or rest in order to do something else. Just rest as a thing in and of itself.
Tess Wei is an artist born, raised, and based in Philadelphia. They received a BA from Swarthmore College in 2017 — studying Art, Art History, and Sociology & Anthropology respectively — and an MFA from PAFA in 2020. Their constellation of thoughts are greatly influenced by the writings of Hito Steyerl, Byung-Chul Han, Italo Calvino, Slavoj Žižek, and Walter Benjamin. Tess is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Art at Swarthmore College, the Exhibitions Manager and Assistant Curator at the List Gallery, Swarthmore College, and a member of AUTOMAT Collective — an artist-run collective based in Philadelphia. Their work has been exhibited in spaces including: Larry Becker Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA; Grizzly Grizzly, Philadelphia, PA; AUTOMAT Collective, Philadelphia, PA; and Anna Zorina (virtual), New York, NY.
EXHIBITION CHECKLIST:
Front room counterclockwise from right of entryway, at window:
1. one well to share, 2021 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 24” x 30”
2. something kept in mind, 2021 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 24” x 30”
3. a space to eavesdrop, 2021 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 24” x 30”
4. ears on a banister, 2021 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 24” x 30”
5. slow legs on a serenade, 2021 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 24” x 30”
6. a goodbye to the astronomer's kite, 2022 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 24” x 30”
7. before the momentous hum, 2022 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 24” x 30”
*flashe is an extra fine, vinyl-based paint – it is very opaque with a matte finish.
Second room counterclockwise from right, at entry:
8. if afterward, 2021 oil, wax, sand, acrylic on panel; 16" x 20”
9. keeping a mountain warm, 2021 oil, wax, sand, acrylic on panel; 16" x 20”
10. gone fishing w/ an hourglass, 2020-2021 oil, wax, inkjet transfer on panel; 48" x 36"
11. perhaps from westward winds, 2020-2021 oil, wax, inkjet transfer on panel; 48" x 36"
12. a turnstile at star sixty-seven, 2021 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 16" x 20”
13. sand at 4 o'clock, 2021 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 16" x 20”
14. slow altitude in the yard, 2021 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 16" x 20”
15. a syndicate for distance, 2021 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 16" x 20”
16. creased to a melt, 2021 oil, wax, sand, flashe* on panel; 16" x 20”
