Christopher Wool

Eleni Koroneou Gallery is pleased to present the work of the American artist Christopher Wool in his fourth solo exhibition. Christopher Wool was born in 1955 in Chicago and studied in the New York School, New York.

Within his particular oeuvre, Wool has transposed elements from mass culture such as print media, advertising, music and film as a means to create a collision between painting and printing.
The basic element of Wool’s work is the process of painting itself which he explores by reducing form and color, then experimenting with different painting and reproduction techniques within these parameters. The processes of painting, the physical properties of paint and techniques of reproduction underpin Wool’s practice. In previous works he has used a plethora of media comprising aluminium, silkscreen, varnish, photography, paint rollers and stencils with industrial procedures and techniques made available by mass production. Wool used these procedures in combination with painting to play with the ideas and techniques of reproduction.

In the current exhibition Christopher Wool will present a series of works on paper, using the technique of silkscreen that he combines with ink. For the current body of work Wool has returned to painting in a reductive format to emphasis elements of painting and erasure, gesture and removal, depth and flatness. Therefore Wool’s paintings are constructed by destruction: the black lines are partly removed, blended into each other and sometimes made white. He then paints new lines and erases them again, creating a dynamic tension between the contrast of patterns, the wash-like strokes and the curved lines.
Wool said: ‚I became more interested in „how to paint“ than „what to paint.“’ His work encourages the viewer to reflect on the physical qualities of paint, to be aware of painting procedures and the essential elements of the medium: form, line and color.

Christopher Wool has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Museums and Art Centers, including the Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg (2006); Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno, Valencia (2006); P.S.1 – Contemporary Art Center, Long Island City (2004); Camden Arts Center, London (2004); Le Consortium, Dijon (2002); Secession, Vienna (2001); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (1998) and Kunsthalle Basel (1998).