Wade Gutyon, Installation view (2010), Capitain Petzel. All images via Capitain Petzel, Berlin.
Currently on view at Capitain Petzel in Berlin is the gallery’s first solo show of American artist Wade Guyton. Having once been quoted by New York Times Magazine as saying “I am too lazy to paint,” Guyton continues to press the boundaries of creating art in a digital age by making heavy use of an Epson ink jet printer. This installation features 86 pieces of paper displayed under glass in fifteen vitrines. A continuation of an installation at the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, Germany in 2010, Guyton has expanded the project to an entire series of blue-tiled vitrines and works on paper. Although these papers have the appearance of a handcrafted painting, each underwent a process involving multiple printings and digital additions or “drawings.”
More text and images after the jump…
The papers began as pages from magazines and books that Guyton scavenged and then altered. He then re-printed the pages overlaying the initial image with marks or “drawings” created by the artist on Microsoft Word. Any errors made were duly accepted, as in moments when Guyton accidentally hit “print” on the wrong screen—the home pages of Apple or the NY Times pop up repeatedly among the hybrid printed pages. Each vitrine is lined with blue vinyl floor tiles—the same as those in his kitchen—providing a striking background for the printed pages. The papers are arranged in casual groupings, formal line-ups, or isolated vignettes, some vitrines holding only blue tiles.
By engaging with processes of mechanical reproduction Guyton continues the Warholian trend of eliminating the artist’s hand.  In previous exhibitions, such as the Ludwig Museum show, Guyton covered an entire wall with an enormous inkjet painting.  Despite this mechanization, the splotches and smears created by the printer give the work a sense of spontaneity, and the smaller scale of the pages at Capitain Petzel speak to a more intimate engagement with the viewer. Encased behind glass, the works become more like relics or artifacts, from our own time.
– S. Zabrodski
Related Links:
Gallery [Capitain Petzel]
Wade Guyton [Interview Magazine]
