Walter Price Pearl Lines

Walter Price presents Pearl Lines a body of new paintings at The Modern Institute Osborne Street. Price’s work plays between figuration and abstraction, exhausting repeating motifs and adding familiarity and nostalgia to his work by reflecting on his past in the navy then making it visible in his present.

Focusing on the location of Osborne St, a former bathhouse, Price mirrors his 2018 show by engulfing the gallery interior in a deep ultramarine blue. Price’s attention to the colour blue is echoed in the new works, where a range of blue tones dominate the canvas, ranging from tactile abstract seascapes to landscapes layered within the figurative works that are parallel to Price’s drawings.
Installation view
Installation view "Pearl Lines', The Modern Institute, Osborne Street, 2022
‘Young lady reading’ is based on the painting of the same title by Mary Cassatt painted in 1878. The painting depicts a young woman struggling to read, Price’s interpretation adds a secondary figure and uses this character to pay homage to his own family dynamic and the importance of education and family support. Familiar motifs of stars, armchairs, umbrellas, and hats are recurring symbols, often hidden within the paintings, these codes act as autobiographical notes, cultural ciphers reflecting and commenting on memory, social observations, political stances, and questions of identity.

Price's work is about these collective themes and the aesthetic and history of painting, an act of converting experiences into colour and line with a tangible medium.
Wondering the same thing, 2022

Acrylic, latex, gesso, ink, on wood
127 x 259.1 cm, 50 x 102 in

Wondering the same thing, 2022

Acrylic, latex, gesso, ink, on wood
127 x 259.1 cm, 50 x 102 in

Fate of the animals #3, 2022

Acrylic, gesso, ink, staples, ziplock bag, photo on wood
124.5 x 185.4 cm, 49 x 73 in

Fate of the animals #3, 2022

Acrylic, gesso, ink, staples, ziplock bag, photo on wood
124.5 x 185.4 cm, 49 x 73 in

Sofa descending the stairs, 2020

Acrylic gesso flashe on canvas
109.2 x 157.5 x 6.3 cm 43 x 62 1/8 x 2 1/2 in

Sofa descending the stairs, 2020

Acrylic gesso flashe on canvas
109.2 x 157.5 x 6.3 cm 43 x 62 1/8 x 2 1/2 in

Fugitive laughing beauty, 2020

Acrylic gesso flashe on canvas
104.1 x 104.1 x 5.1 cm 41 x 41 x 2 in

Fugitive laughing beauty, 2020

Acrylic gesso flashe on canvas
104.1 x 104.1 x 5.1 cm 41 x 41 x 2 in

Dont borrow suffering, 2022

Acrylic, gesso, screws, mending plate on wood
40.6 x 50.8 cm 16 x 20 in

Dont borrow suffering, 2022

Acrylic, gesso, screws, mending plate on wood
40.6 x 50.8 cm 16 x 20 in

Young lady reading, 2021

Acrylic, gesso on wood
152.4 x 203.2 x 7.6 cm, 60 x 80 x 3 in

Young lady reading, 2021

Acrylic, gesso on wood
152.4 x 203.2 x 7.6 cm, 60 x 80 x 3 in

C is for shark, 2021

Acrylic and gesso on canvas
152.4 x 135.9 x 5.1 cm 60 x 53 1/2 x 2 in

C is for shark, 2021

Acrylic and gesso on canvas
152.4 x 135.9 x 5.1 cm 60 x 53 1/2 x 2 in

Great Cs, 2021

Acrylic on wood
40.64 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm, 16 x 20 x 1 in

Great Cs, 2021

Acrylic on wood
40.64 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm, 16 x 20 x 1 in

Living beat by beat, 2021

Acrylic, gesso, graphite, wax crayon on wood
152.4 x 205.7 x 7.6 cm 60 x 81 x 3 in

Living beat by beat, 2021

Acrylic, gesso, graphite, wax crayon on wood
152.4 x 205.7 x 7.6 cm 60 x 81 x 3 in

It has to rain before you can see where all the leaks are at #3, 2022

Oil on wood
91.4 x 121.9 cm, 36 x 48 in

It has to rain before you can see where all the leaks are at #3, 2022

Oil on wood
91.4 x 121.9 cm, 36 x 48 in

It got uncomfortable, immediately!, 2022

Acrylic, gesso, latex, graphite, framed drawing, hinges, screws on wood
127 x 259.1 cm, 50 x 102 in

It got uncomfortable, immediately!, 2022

Acrylic, gesso, latex, graphite, framed drawing, hinges, screws on wood
127 x 259.1 cm, 50 x 102 in

London, 2021

Acrylic, screws, plexi glass, gesso, encaustic on wood
40.6 x 50.8 x 3.8 cm, 16 x 20 x 1 1/2 in

London, 2021

Acrylic, screws, plexi glass, gesso, encaustic on wood
40.6 x 50.8 x 3.8 cm, 16 x 20 x 1 1/2 in

Son day, 2020

Acrylic gesso flashe on canvas
116.8 x 132 x 5.1 cm 46 x 52 x 2 in

Son day, 2020

Acrylic gesso flashe on canvas
116.8 x 132 x 5.1 cm 46 x 52 x 2 in

Starry Night, 2022

Acrylic gesso on wood
22.9 x 30.5 x 2.5 cm, 9 x 12 x 1 in

Starry Night, 2022

Acrylic gesso on wood
22.9 x 30.5 x 2.5 cm, 9 x 12 x 1 in

It has to rain before you can see where all the leaks are at #2, 2022

Oil on wood
91.4 x 121.9 cm, 36 x 48 in

It has to rain before you can see where all the leaks are at #2, 2022

Oil on wood
91.4 x 121.9 cm, 36 x 48 in

Mr Go left on a fool not in they right mind, 2021

Acrylic on wood
40.6 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm, 16 x 20 x 1 in

Mr Go left on a fool not in they right mind, 2021

Acrylic on wood
40.6 x 50.8 x 2.5 cm, 16 x 20 x 1 in

Over bored, 2020

Acrylic, flashe, burlap on wood
22.9 x 30.5 x 2.5 cm 9 x 12 x 1 in

Over bored, 2020

Acrylic, flashe, burlap on wood
22.9 x 30.5 x 2.5 cm 9 x 12 x 1 in

Offer more imagination than reality, 2020

Acrylic gesso flashe on canvas
81.9 x 102.8 x 3.2 cm 32 1/4 x 40 1/2 x 1 1/4 in

Offer more imagination than reality, 2020

Acrylic gesso flashe on canvas
81.9 x 102.8 x 3.2 cm 32 1/4 x 40 1/2 x 1 1/4 in

Id rather cry in the ocean, 2020

Acrylic on wood
60.9 x 182.9 x 8.9 cm 24 x 72 x 3 1/2 in

Id rather cry in the ocean, 2020

Acrylic on wood
60.9 x 182.9 x 8.9 cm 24 x 72 x 3 1/2 in

Night watch, 2020

Acrylic, encaustic, gesso on wood
81.3 x 119.4 x 5.1 cm, 32 x 47 x 2 in

Night watch, 2020

Acrylic, encaustic, gesso on wood
81.3 x 119.4 x 5.1 cm, 32 x 47 x 2 in

Guess what brother? We are afraid of you!, 2021

Acrylic, gesso, vinyl, graphite on wood
48.3 x 61 cm, 19 x 24 in

Guess what brother? We are afraid of you!, 2021

Acrylic, gesso, vinyl, graphite on wood
48.3 x 61 cm, 19 x 24 in

Walter Price (b. Macon, Georgia in 1989, lives and works in New York). Selected exhibitions include: ‘Pearl Lines’, Greene Naftali, New York (2022); ‘Pearl Lines’, Camden Arts Centre, London (2021); ‘Pearl Lines’, The Modern Institute, 3 Aird's Lane, Glasgow (2020); ‘Pearl Lines’, Greene Naftali, New York (2020); ‘We passed like ships in the night’, Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2019); ‘Walter Price’, MoMA PS1, New York (2018); ‘Pearl Lines’, Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne (2018); ‘Pearl Lines’, The Modern Institute, 14—20 Osborne Street, Glasgow (2018); ‘Fictions’, The Studio Museum Harlem, New York (2017); ’89Plus: Americans’, LUMA Foundation, Zurich (2017); ’99 Cents or Less’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (2017); ‘Zeitgeist’, MAMCO Museé d’Art Moderne, Geneva, Switzerland (2017); ‘Full Spectrum’, Harriet Tubman Museum, Macon, Georgia (2013).
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