Continuing through April 7, 2018
As much as Walead Beshty has been cranking out multi-media exhibitions over the last several years, “Equivalents” appears to push the range of objects, and their respective tenors, to a level beyond. The main gallery includes several iterations of his signature, very large scale, photogram-meets-processor color prints. Peaking at about 11- to nearly 12-feet high, these exposed and then darkroom-processed diptychs are more muted than his prior series, and call to mind abstract expressionism (via scale and vibe), if of the coolest kind.
Meanwhile, near the show’s entrance, by the reception desk, there hangs a framed letterpress edition of “Amends General Minimum Wage Order and IWS Industry and Occupation Orders…,” a concise summation of the way Beshty tends to ground his objects in their most concrete, reality-based selves. Polished copper wall sculptures (another recurring element of his oeuvre) bear the fingerprints of the art handlers and preparators (no gloves is the rule), while copper wall plate etchings feature a combination of the artist’s medical body scans and his (numerous) drug prescriptions. One of the show’s highlights is a series of framed 4 x 5 inch transparency monochromes, the source of their colors (blues, purples, grays and blacks) is derived from airport security screening X-rays (how Beshty got access to such equipment is apparently a story for another time), a subtle meditation in which the most colorful rectangles glow in contrast to their more muted neighbors; they’re a force that transcend monochrome abstraction.
