Exhibition

WALTER PRICE
Pearl Lines

Ground Floor

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

Its the fire that holds our attention
Its not if you see color, its how you treat color
Armoring the mind
“Be a fireman, we live in the heat, we train in the heat! We control the heat!!”
1 for Mayhem 2 for Mischief
Sensory information from the world
For there’s a Will there’s a Way!
A breeze filled with determination wafted towards us
It has to rain before you can see where all the leaks are at
The fate of the animals
Graceful Strut
An activity of the spirit
A tear in the static of everyday life
You wouldn’t expect something so transparent to block the heat so well
Allegory of the cave theory
As if you’ve swallowed the sun and moon
Psychological acceleration

Walter Price
A breeze filled with determination wafted toward us
, 2018
Acrylic and Flashe on canvas
78 1/2 x 133 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches (199.4 x 339.1 x 3.2 cm)

Greene Naftali is pleased to present Walter Price’s debut solo exhibition with the gallery, Pearl Lines, which brings together bodies of work from the past three years. Price's paintings and drawings tread the line between figuration and abstraction, grounded in a visual vocabulary informed by both personal and shared experience. Fusing a wide range of references that simultaneously signal individual identities and trans-cultural realities of the human condition, as well as a deep understanding of Art’s history, Price’s work presents an intense investigation of the limits and possibilities of (visual) knowledge. Partially realized objects and figures emerge from bustling negative space and bisecting planes of color, playing with specificity and narrative. A freedom of materials echoes this synthesis of the familiar and the out-of-place, while a continuously shifting gaze, with untold agents and objects, pressures the act of looking. Formal and figurative elements vie for one’s attention; a viewing experience that oscillates between recognition and confusion, knowing and not-knowing.

Walter Price

1 for Mayhem 2 for Mischief, 2020

Acrylic on wood

32 x 47 inches (81.3 x 119.4 cm)

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

Walter Price
Graceful Strut
, 2019
Acrylic and Flashe on canvas
80 x 81 x 1 1/2 inches (203.2 x 205.7 x 3.8 cm)

Walter Price
Its not if you see color, its how you treat colo
r, 2019
Acrylic, gesso and Flashe on canvas
73 x 78 1/2 inches (185.4 x 199.4 cm)

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

Walter Price
An activity of the spirit
, 2018–19
Acrylic on wood
18 x 24 x 1 inches (45.7 x 61 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price
A tear in the static of everyday life
, 2019
Acrylic and encaustic on wood
18 x 24 x 1 inches (45.7 x 61 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price
An activity of the spirit
, 2018–19
Acrylic on wood
18 x 24 x 1 inches (45.7 x 61 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price
A tear in the static of everyday life
, 2019
Acrylic and encaustic on wood
18 x 24 x 1 inches (45.7 x 61 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

Walter Price
Armoring the mind
, 2020
Acrylic on wood
8 x 6 inches (20.3 x 15.2 cm)

Walter Price
Armoring the mind
, 2020
Acrylic on wood
8 x 6 inches (20.3 x 15.2 cm)

Walter Price

You wouldn’t expect something so transparent to block the heat so well, 2018

Acrylic and glitter on canvas

86 1/4 x 79 x 1 1/4 inches (219.1 x 200.7 x 3.2 cm)

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

Walter Price
As if you’ve swallowed the sun and moon
, 2018
Acrylic and glitter on canvas
88 1/2 x 67 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches
(224.8 x 171.5 x 3.2 cm)

Walter Price
Psychological acceleration, 2018
Acrylic and Flashe on canvas
79 1/4 x 103 3/4 x 1 1/4 inches (201.3 x 263.5 x 3.2 cm)

Walter Price
Allegory of the cave theory
, 2019-2020
Acrylic, graphite, photo collage, gesso, PVA adhesive on wood
18 x 24 x 1 inches (45.7 x 61 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price
Allegory of the cave theory
, 2019-2020
Acrylic, graphite, photo collage, gesso, PVA adhesive on wood
18 x 24 x 1 inches (45.7 x 61 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

The title Pearl Lines celebrates drawing as the foundation of Price’s practice. “Pearl” offers beauty, but, here, beauty is rooted in the word itself, in language and utterance, activity and repetition, not in the object to which it may refer. “Everything starts with a line,” Price says. His command of and experimentation with line and composition are seen across the works on view in two galleries dedicated to drawings. Price expands the mark-making possibilities of colored pencil, graphite, marker, and oil pastel in constantly varying gestures paired with collage––pages from books and magazines, torn pieces of paper, packing tape, commercial stickers––and appropriated printmaking methods. The fluidity and freedom Price practices in his drawings are the premise for his approach to painting, a selection of which are on view in the main gallery space.

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

Walter Price
For there’s a Will there’s a Way!
, 2017
Acrylic on wood
16 x 20 x 1 inches (40.6 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price
Sensory information from the world
, 2019
Acrylic, glitter, clear gesso on canvas
30 x 30 x 1 1/2 inches (76.2 x 76.2 x 3.8 cm)

Walter Price
For there’s a Will there’s a Way!
, 2017
Acrylic on wood
16 x 20 x 1 inches (40.6 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price
Sensory information from the world
, 2019
Acrylic, glitter, clear gesso on canvas
30 x 30 x 1 1/2 inches (76.2 x 76.2 x 3.8 cm)

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

Walter Price
“Be a fireman, we live in the heat, we train in the heat! We control the heat!!”
, 2018
Acrylic, staples, and masking tape on wood
16 x 20 x 1 inches (40.6 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price
“Be a fireman, we live in the heat, we train in the heat! We control the heat!!”
, 2018
Acrylic, staples, and masking tape on wood
16 x 20 x 1 inches (40.6 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

Walter Price
“Be a fireman, we live in the heat, we train in the heat! We control the heat!!”
, 2018
Acrylic, staples, and masking tape on wood
16 x 20 x 1 inches (40.6 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price
“Be a fireman, we live in the heat, we train in the heat! We control the heat!!”
, 2018
Acrylic, staples, and masking tape on wood
16 x 20 x 1 inches (40.6 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price
“Be a fireman, we live in the heat, we train in the heat! We control the heat!!”
, 2018
Acrylic, staples, and masking tape on wood
16 x 20 x 1 inches (40.6 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price
“Be a fireman, we live in the heat, we train in the heat! We control the heat!!”
, 2018
Acrylic, staples, and masking tape on wood
16 x 20 x 1 inches (40.6 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm)

Walter Price
It’s the fire that holds our attention
, 2018
Acrylic, Flashe, and glitter on canvas
67 1/2 x 64 1/2 x 1 1/4 inches
(171.5 x 163.8 x 3.2 cm)

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

The accompanying catalogue reproduces a group of the drawings on view, taken from the artist’s portfolio from his 2019 residency at the Fürstenberg Contemporary held at the Heiligenberg Castle. In collaboration with Marco Barrera, Price has also produced a limited-edition zine titled The Illusion of Transparency.

A newly commissioned essay on Price’s work, titled “The Fluid Part,” by art historian Darby English is available to read in the viewing room below, and was reproduced in Walter Price: Pearl Lines, the monograph accompanying Price's 2021 exhibition at the Camden Art Center.

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

Walter Price
Untitled
, 2019
Colored pencil, graphite and oil pastel on archival tagboard paper
Paper: 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Frame: 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches (41.3 x 33.7 x 3.5 cm)

Walter Price
Untitled, 2019
Colored pencil, graphite and oil pastel on archival tagboard paper
Paper: 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Frame: 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches (41.3 x 33.7 x 3.5 cm)

Walter Price
Untitled, 2019
Colored pencil, graphite and oil pastel on archival tagboard paper
Paper: 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Frame: 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches (41.3 x 33.7 x 3.5 cm)

Walter Price
Untitled
, 2019
Colored pencil, graphite and oil pastel on archival tagboard paper
Paper: 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Frame: 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches (41.3 x 33.7 x 3.5 cm)

Walter Price
Untitled, 2019
Colored pencil, graphite and oil pastel on archival tagboard paper
Paper: 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Frame: 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches (41.3 x 33.7 x 3.5 cm)

Walter Price
Untitled, 2019
Colored pencil, graphite and oil pastel on archival tagboard paper
Paper: 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)
Frame: 16 1/4 x 13 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches (41.3 x 33.7 x 3.5 cm)

Walter Price, Installation view, Pearl Lines, Greene Naftali, New York, 2020

Walter Price

Untitled, 2018

Transparent yellow tape, colored pencil and graphite on paper

Paper: 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

Frame: 18 3/4 x 15 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches (47.6 x 38.7 x 3.5 cm)

Walter Price

Atlien 2, 2019

Colored pencil, graphite and collage on paper

Paper: 11 1/4 x 6 inches (28.6 x 15.2 cm)

Frame: 15 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 1 3/8 inches (39.4 x 29.2 x 3.5 cm

Walter Price

Untitled, 2018

Transparent yellow tape, colored pencil and graphite on paper

Paper: 12 x 9 inches (30.5 x 22.9 cm)

Frame: 18 3/4 x 15 1/4 x 1 3/8 inches (47.6 x 38.7 x 3.5 cm)

Walter Price

Atlien 2, 2019

Colored pencil, graphite and collage on paper

Paper: 11 1/4 x 6 inches (28.6 x 15.2 cm)

Frame: 15 1/2 x 11 1/2 x 1 3/8 inches (39.4 x 29.2 x 3.5 cm

Press

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