V1 GALLERY PRESENTS
Wes Lang Going All The Way For The USA
A solo exhibition by Wes Lang
Truth and the writing of history is surrounded by multiple theories, meanings and interests. Who gets to write history, to which audience do they write it, under which circumstances, and why? At the influential round table interested parties with power, money and not least doubt are gathered. Because what is the truth? And should the lie also be told?
The American artist Wes Lang doesn’t want a seat at the round table. He is in his studio. Busy writing his own history. Without taking note of the above questions. Stealing and giving. Swiping the paintbrush aggressively at the canvas and caressing the paper with penciled details. Respecting and ridiculing. Speeding up the motorcycle and looking in the rear view mirror. And in this way he actually writes one of the most credible and interesting American stories we know of.
With an impressive amount of references Wes Lang’s canvases tell tales of artists, politicians, things and people. Symbols and ways of life. Music and war. Emotions and sex. Joy, gratitude, frustration and aggression. Kippenberger, Rothko, Crumb, Twombly, Basquiat, David Bazan, and his crew of friends and colleagues from New York mix in with nude paintings of his girlfriend, aging hippies on acid, Death, Nazis, vampires, tombstones, butterflies, The Grateful Dead, Indian Jesus, the Devil and cartoon characters. Political statements and commercial slogans are uttered in the same breath as cries for help and confessions from the heart. And lust, humor, life, and trouble flow through the canvases as a life- affirming stream gushing over hypocrisy.
WES LANG GOING ALL THE WAY FOR THE U.S.A. feels like traversing the worst and the best of Americana. Repulsive and impressive. Fascinating and trivial. Generous and heartless. Hilarious and despairing. Critical and loving. At the same time the exhibition is the essence of Lang and his work for the past ten years. A distilled and very personal journey painted on canvas and paper.
Wes Lang’s name has been synonymous with one of the most interesting art movements from New York in recent times. Today he is an important individual voice with exhibitions at ZieherSmith, Deste Foundation and Peres Projects in the baggage. And now he returns to V1 Gallery with his first solo exhibition in Denmark.
