The Waymaker Gallery is a fictional art gallery that exists online, created using a 3D modeling program. It emulates the appearance of an actual gallery's website but attempts to break the conventions and expectations of that medium. The shows are either created in collaboration with other artists, such as Jason Loebs or Alexander Lee, or else produced under pseudonyms such as Oomlou Nioni or Gardner Reintz. Each show uses the format of the gallery in a different way, regarding the gallery website as a medium in its own right. I wanted to create a space where artists could hack the structure of the commercial gallery and use it rather than be used by it.
Waymaker Gallery:
Tactile Galaxies
This show was based around the work of a fictional artist, named Gardner Reintz, who created a physical representation of the night sky by placing white pins in the wall. His father had begun to go blind and, since their only shared interest was astronomy, he created this installation so that his father could 'see' the sky once again, restoring the bridge between them.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT SHOW
Tactile Galaxies
This show was based around the work of a fictional artist, named Gardner Reintz, who created a physical representation of the night sky by placing white pins in the wall. His father had begun to go blind and, since their only shared interest was astronomy, he created this installation so that his father could 'see' the sky once again, restoring the bridge between them.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT SHOW
Videos below are excerpts from the show.
Waymaker Gallery:
A Seance To Summon The Void
This show was based around the work of Yves Klein, specifically his "The Specialization of Sensibility in the Raw Material State into Stabilized Pictorial Sensibility, The Void". For that show he the gallery was filled with no material objects or artifacts, only the auratic tension produced by works of art. In this Waymaker show I attempted recreate that experiment in the virtual space of the Waymaker Gallery. The visual experience below is an artifact from the show.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT SHOW
A Seance To Summon The Void
This show was based around the work of Yves Klein, specifically his "The Specialization of Sensibility in the Raw Material State into Stabilized Pictorial Sensibility, The Void". For that show he the gallery was filled with no material objects or artifacts, only the auratic tension produced by works of art. In this Waymaker show I attempted recreate that experiment in the virtual space of the Waymaker Gallery. The visual experience below is an artifact from the show.
CLICK HERE TO VISIT SHOW
'Invokation of Chromatic Materialization Between Vigor and Oblivion'.
In this video color moves from International Klein Blue to Chroma Key Green and back again, passing through the darkness of oblivion between every other transformation.
Click the image again to increase the power of the invocation.
In this video color moves from International Klein Blue to Chroma Key Green and back again, passing through the darkness of oblivion between every other transformation.
Click the image again to increase the power of the invocation.
Installation for Fourteen Again at the Chelsea Art Museum
For this show I rebuilt the back office of the Waymaker Gallery and allowed visitors to rifle through the shelves and drawers, visiting the webiste through two on-site computers located at the owners desk and at the information counter. The green wall acted as a portal to the absent show.
The following four images are from the same show.
For this show I rebuilt the back office of the Waymaker Gallery and allowed visitors to rifle through the shelves and drawers, visiting the webiste through two on-site computers located at the owners desk and at the information counter. The green wall acted as a portal to the absent show.
The following four images are from the same show.
Installation View
Installation View
Installation View (composited)
Installation View (composited)
Waymaker Gallery:
The Mysterious House of Colors
This show was produced in collaboration with the children of Clinton Middle School. I asked one group of children to decide what sort of objects belonged in the art show and then worked with a second group of students to decide what the stories were behind all the works of art.
You can visit the show and read the full story by clicking here.
The Mysterious House of Colors
This show was produced in collaboration with the children of Clinton Middle School. I asked one group of children to decide what sort of objects belonged in the art show and then worked with a second group of students to decide what the stories were behind all the works of art.
You can visit the show and read the full story by clicking here.
Mysterious House of Colors: View 2
Mysterious House of Colors: View 3
Mysterious House of Colors: View 4
Mysterious House of Colors: View 5
Waymaker Gallery:
Saving Sisyphus
This show was produced with another artist who chose to remain anonymous. The initial premise of the show was to have a show of Jackson Pollock paintings displayed on the ground, the way that the artist would have seen them. Part of the power of Pollock's work is that it resisted being seen as an image, a quality that has since been lost in the wake of his huge popular success. Since it would be impossible to make a show about resisting the impulse to view something as an image, and then document it with imagery, it was decided that viewers could only see the show through video. Each painting had a video dedicated to act of looking at it in space.
You can visit the show and read the full story by clicking here.
Saving Sisyphus
This show was produced with another artist who chose to remain anonymous. The initial premise of the show was to have a show of Jackson Pollock paintings displayed on the ground, the way that the artist would have seen them. Part of the power of Pollock's work is that it resisted being seen as an image, a quality that has since been lost in the wake of his huge popular success. Since it would be impossible to make a show about resisting the impulse to view something as an image, and then document it with imagery, it was decided that viewers could only see the show through video. Each painting had a video dedicated to act of looking at it in space.
You can visit the show and read the full story by clicking here.
Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)
Number 5
Cathedral
Lucifer
Waymaker Gallery:
Works on View
The Waymaker Gallery was invited to participate in Chicago's NEXT fair. Rather than pack up a bunch of works and try to sell them as might be expected, I sent out an open call asking for images of 2D art works. Once I had the work of about twenty artists, I built a virtual booth in which to display the artworks and printed a catalogue of the works on view. For the actual booth I simply set up a green screen and a camera and asked visitors to select the artwork they wished to view. Once the fair was over I carefully composited each of the visitors into the gallery, looking at the work of their choice, and sent an email to everyone who had participated and provided a site where they could download their image. The 164 images are cycled randomly.
You can see it installed by clicking here
Works on View
The Waymaker Gallery was invited to participate in Chicago's NEXT fair. Rather than pack up a bunch of works and try to sell them as might be expected, I sent out an open call asking for images of 2D art works. Once I had the work of about twenty artists, I built a virtual booth in which to display the artworks and printed a catalogue of the works on view. For the actual booth I simply set up a green screen and a camera and asked visitors to select the artwork they wished to view. Once the fair was over I carefully composited each of the visitors into the gallery, looking at the work of their choice, and sent an email to everyone who had participated and provided a site where they could download their image. The 164 images are cycled randomly.
You can see it installed by clicking here
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Works on View
Waymaker Gallery:
Manifold Structures
This show was produced in collaboration with the artist Alexander Lee. When asked what he would do for an art show if he could anything at all, he said that he would like to take the entire corner of Wabash and Monroe from Chicago and place it into a gallery. The idea was to take the exterior context of his daily walk to school and reframe it within the context of the gallery, inverting our expectations and revealing the inability of the gallery setting to properly convey the majority of our experience.
You can visit the show and read the full story by clicking here.
Manifold Structures
This show was produced in collaboration with the artist Alexander Lee. When asked what he would do for an art show if he could anything at all, he said that he would like to take the entire corner of Wabash and Monroe from Chicago and place it into a gallery. The idea was to take the exterior context of his daily walk to school and reframe it within the context of the gallery, inverting our expectations and revealing the inability of the gallery setting to properly convey the majority of our experience.
You can visit the show and read the full story by clicking here.
Manifold Structures: View 2
Waymaker Gallery:
Kazimir's Blueprints
This show was produced in collaboration with Jason Loebs. When Kazimir Malevich was returning from Poland in the 1920's he was harassed while going through customs because his art was considered dangerous. Through an anecdote from a fictional newspaper we imagined that the only way he would be able to get his drawings through customs was to lie and say that they were really architectural plans. Based on this premise we constructed the 'buildings' that his drawing might have implied. The buildings were each generated by a small amount of computer code, some of which was written on the wall of the gallery.
You can visit the show and read the full story by clicking here.
Kazimir's Blueprints
This show was produced in collaboration with Jason Loebs. When Kazimir Malevich was returning from Poland in the 1920's he was harassed while going through customs because his art was considered dangerous. Through an anecdote from a fictional newspaper we imagined that the only way he would be able to get his drawings through customs was to lie and say that they were really architectural plans. Based on this premise we constructed the 'buildings' that his drawing might have implied. The buildings were each generated by a small amount of computer code, some of which was written on the wall of the gallery.
You can visit the show and read the full story by clicking here.
Kazimir's Blueprints: View 2
Waymaker Gallery:
Oomlou Nioni's Menagerie
This show was the first show at the Waymaker Gallery and it was produced with a fictional artist named Oomlou Nioni. I made a brief stop motion animation at an extremely high resolution and then re-edited that animation over and over, moving within the frame. The animation is of a cartoon water dragon like the Loch Ness monster who moves in a manner counter to our intuition. We expect the part of the creature that we cannot see to echo the part that we can see, yet the truth is that the part of the dragon underneath the water is unknown and unknowable and so it does not need to act according to the expectations and demands of our reason.
You can visit the show and read the full story by clicking here.
Oomlou Nioni's Menagerie
This show was the first show at the Waymaker Gallery and it was produced with a fictional artist named Oomlou Nioni. I made a brief stop motion animation at an extremely high resolution and then re-edited that animation over and over, moving within the frame. The animation is of a cartoon water dragon like the Loch Ness monster who moves in a manner counter to our intuition. We expect the part of the creature that we cannot see to echo the part that we can see, yet the truth is that the part of the dragon underneath the water is unknown and unknowable and so it does not need to act according to the expectations and demands of our reason.
You can visit the show and read the full story by clicking here.