Various Small Fires is pleased to present Chicago-based artist Will Gabaldón’s debut presentation in Asia. All out beyond horizon, the artist’s second solo exhibition with VSF, will showcase twelve new landscape paintings drawn from both real life and memory. The pastoral scenes are simultaneous representations of real places and manifestations of what the artist refers to as "atmospheres left in memory." Reminiscent of his first solo show with VSF held earlier this year in Los Angeles, Gabaldón continues his practice of depicting rural environments with the blowing trees, immaculate grass fields, muted violet and blue skies that oscillate between the figurative and abstract.
Similar to his recent LA show This must be the place, an eponymous funky score of Talking Heads' title song from their 1983 album, the current show also draws its title from the lyrics of The Crane Wife 3 by The Decemberists. Despite the lack of a seemingly direct correlation between the pastoral landscape and pop culture, it plays a crucial element in grasping the general sentiment of the imagined landscapes brought back from memory. Along with the alternative and punk rock music that accompanied the artist, his inspirations are drawn from both figurative and abstract works from various periods. For instance, the simplified forms remind the viewer of the spatial simplicity of Alex Katz's flattened figures and landscapes, whereas the eerily quiet soberness recalls Balthus' uncanny composition of architecture and its surrounding nature. Simultaneously, Gabaldon's acute attention to the painting surface recalls Robert Ryman's white-on-white monochrome paintings that focus less on creating illusions but more on the materiality of the surface.
For his first exhibition in Seoul, Gabaldón has changed his scenery in terms of dimensions and color palette.
