A hallmark of the disobedient child is their inclination to mess up a clean surface – we share this penchant for waywardness. A popular expression for the unruly child, l’enfant terrible is ungovernable, unyielding and defiant. Their dissent is predicated on a refusal to uphold convention. As such, this exhibition endeavors to demonstrate that painting can be much more reckless and unorthodox than its historical legacy lets on. While the medium once served to preserve a time, a place or a person within an image, other technologies now satiate that desire to memorialize much more effectively. Straying from the customs maintained by our predecessors, painting is now a performance between artist and surface, no longer bound to its traditions. Bringing together artists who work explicitly within the medium and artists who work in its margins, this exhibition attempts to be unfaithful to the traditions from which it came, but not entirely divorced from its inheritances. Moreover, this exhibition considers how painting might be, at once, over and forever.
Featuring the work of Chasen Wolcott, Joseph Robertson, Jordan Holms, Marc Northstar, Katherine Boxall & Douglas Angulo. Curated by Katherine Boxall & Jordan Holms.
Image: Untitled, Joseph Robertson
The Swell Gallery is located on the first floor of SFAI's Fort Mason Campus at Pier 2, 2 Marina Boulevard.
