EXHIBITION IMAGES | PRESS RELEASE | ARTIST PAGE
September 3 – October 30, 2022
For more information please contact info@halseymckay.com
Glen Baldridge, No Way, 2022, Gouache on paper, 39 3/4 x 27 3/4 inches (99.92 x 69.44 cm)
Halsey McKay Gallery presents What Now Who How, Glen Baldridge’s third solo exhibition with the gallery. In this latest body of work we see many of his signature motifs pushed into new territory. Continuing to draw from the vernacular of subculture slang, the phrases ‘No Way’ and ‘What Now Who How’, remain hidden in his extrapolated gouache paintings on paper. Where previously the artist camouflaged these messages into abstract, all-over compositions, Baldridge’s newest works have morphed into a forest of representation.
After repeatedly painting the phrase ‘No Way’ for several years, Baldridge began to see the letter forms take the shape of an owl and branches. This vision overlapped with becoming a father and continually reading children’s books, where anthropomorphized animals often communicate their wisdom. Baldridge finds further inspiration in the craft culture of tie-dye, macramé, and street vendors who write children’s names in dolphin shapes on Museum Mile and boardwalks in vacation towns across the U.S.A.
Baldridge has brought the hand back into his work and is painting with brushes and intent, drawing from imagination within the framework of the letters. The paint strokes are made up of many colors on the brush; a nod to blend rolls or split fountain printmaking techniques. Their effects mimic the swirls of head shop paraphernalia as patterns and messages appear from his crinkle-cut brush strokes. Message and image snap back and forth as if the mind is playing tricks or manifesting some internal insight as in the cliches of psychedelic trips.
In another work without any birds, tree branches form to spell out ‘What Now Who How’? No Way serves as a response to this question that has a rhythm/rhyme and sing song nature to it – like a bird call. No Way has become a mantra for the artist. It is both a statement of incredulity and one of refusal. The owls act as harbingers with a hidden message. At a time when conventional norms have been upended on every front, ‘No Way’ may be the only response from the wise.
Glen Baldridge’s work has been collected and exhibited internationally, with recent solo showings at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery, NY; Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton; and Fourteen30 Contemporary, Portland, OR. Baldridge has had print works published by Forth Estate, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, Diue Donné, Flying Horse Editions, and PS Marlowe. His work is included in the collections of: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MoMA, Whitney Museum of American Art, NY Public Library, RISD Museum, Yale University Art Gallery, and Library of Congress, amongst others.