Walead Beshty (b. 1976, London, U.K.) Walead Beshty was born in London, United Kingdom in 1976 and currently lives and works in Los Angeles. He studied at Bard College and received his Masters in Fine Art from Yale University in 2002.

https://www.thomasdanegallery.com/exhibitions/174/works/artworks4495/

“I tend to think of my work in terms of constraints, whether that be context, convention or material, and use their logics to generate the work. I guess that’s because I see life as an improvisation within constraints, and affirmative notions of selfhood, autonomy, freedom, etc., arise through the active negotiation with restriction.” Walead Beshty in Conversation with Hamza Walker on the occasion of Equivalents, Regen Projects, Los Angeles, 2018

Notions:

Objects are given meaning through use, and over time certain uses become naturalized. Through the accumulation of patterns of use, certain conventions become standardized. Painting, for example, has developed a certain set of base conventions (e.g. canvas, rectilinear form, wall as support, portability). These conventions form the starting point for a dialogue, an agreement regarding the nature of the communication that will be taking place. For example, if a painting has a ‘conventional’ relationship to the wall on which it hangs, we would be acting in bad faith if we were to discuss the paint on that wall as part of the work. In art, these conventions designate what is inside and what is outside of the work. The boundary between the work and its surroundings is manifest through its adherence to convention. [from: https://www.actionstakenunderthefictitiousnamewaleadbeshtystudiosinc.com/lesson-notes-for-an-introductory-lecture ]

june ’23 auction: Lot 17, Walead Beshty, Six Magnet, Three Color Curl (CMY: Irvine, California, September 6th 2009, Fuji Crystal Archive Type C) (WB06709), 2009, estimated at £15000-20000, sold at £44450