A maverick figure in New York’s downtown scene, Humphries has revitalized the language of abstract painting over a career that has covered four decades and multiple transformations in style
Published on the occasion of Jacqueline Humphries’ exhibition at the Wexner Center for the Arts, this major catalog surveys the artist’s work from the past seven years, including dozens of new paintings and her largest multipanel installations to date.
The exhibition and its accompanying catalog highlight the importance of digital communications and online culture in Humphries's ever-changing practice. Incorporating the QWERTY keyboard as a means of generating abstract forms, the artist's recent paintings integrate emoticons, emojis, CAPTCHAs and ASCII text as layers of mark-making in dense and vivid works. Other featured works explore the visual language of corporate logos; black light paintings presented in darkened spaces; a group of protest paintings that subtly channel political dissent; and thickly painted renderings of white noise, in which digital content receives viscerally material application. Across each body of work, Humphries reaffirms her ongoing commitment to abstract painting, while bringing a seemingly traditional form into dialogue with the issues and interfaces that shape contemporary life.
The book features essays by exhibition curator Mark Godfrey, Courtney J. Martin, Jenny Nachtigall and former Wexner Center Director Johanna Burton. Designed by Studio Markus Weisbeck, this extensively illustrated monograph offers an in-depth view of Humphries's continued evolution in painting.
