B. Wurtz’s new work in his first U.S. museum survey will reflect the artist’s cumulative approach to production. While increasingly experimental with materials, he is consistent in his exploration of marking time, place, and subjectivity through everyday activities. B. Wurtz has developed a visual language that subverts the industrial austerity of Minimalism and centers the minutiae from daily life in ways poetic and whimsical. His idiosyncratic work in sculpture and assemblage revolves around the use of objects that refer to the “acts of eating, sleeping and keeping warm.” Food tins, socks, plastic bags, shoestrings, and mesh produce bags are transformed into elegant meditations on form and line while simultaneously underscoring the artist’s personal commitment to the ethics of reuse. “B. Wurtz: This Has No Name” will be on view at ICA LA from September 15, 2018 through January 13, 2019.
(Excerpt and images below selected from grant proposal. All works are copyright of the artist.)
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- B. Wurtz, “Comparison,” Wood, wire, Slinky, metal, cement, 48 2/5” x 18” x 12 3/5” (1986)
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- B. Wurtz, “Bunch,” Metal, wood, enamel paint, wire, plastic bags, 87” x 42” x 42” (1994)
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- B. Wurtz, “Untitled,” Wood, wire, thread, plastic mesh bags, 45” x 18” x 1” (2013)
