FRIEZE LONDON 2024

The new works are comprised of sub-series that depict different species of plants commonly found throughout California, including Jade, Dragon, Aloe, Ferox and Yucca plants. Each sub-series is made up of four ‘sets,’ which consists of a photograph of the plant together with its shadow, alongside a densely rendered black ink drawing and a watercolour. Over each sub-series, Gaines rotates and sequentially plots the forms of the plant and its shadow on a numbered grid in both mediums. To complete the series, Gaines turns each plant 90 degrees and documents it through the same process, so that each plant is shown rotated 0, 90, 180, and 270 degrees. As each set progresses, the ink drawings and watercolours depict a combination of all the prior rotations of the plant and its shadow, resulting in a complex, layered map of the complete subject collapsed into a final image. In the 1980s works, Gaines employs a simple ink drawing to plot each rotation, however, in this newest series, he employs a palette of brilliant watercolours, a testament to the artist’s consistent investigation and challenging of his own process. The results across the dynamic new Jade, Dragon, Aloe, Ferox and Yucca series are astonishing.

Despite the methodical and ordered nature of the numbers, the Shadows series serves as an exploration of the nature of perception. Rooted in a meticulously devised system rather than the artist’s imagination or intuition, Gaines’ process highlights variations in forms, suggesting the arbitrary nature of other constructed systems in our society such as politics, gender, race and class. Through this revisitation, Gaines asks the viewer to visually reformulate the deconstructed form of the plant. The Shadows series— both then and now—demands the viewer’s engagement with the work as we look closely and participate in the reconstruction of an ordinary object.

Gaines will also exhibit recent works from his acclaimed Numbers and Trees series at The Phoenix Art Museum in ‘Charles Gaines: Numbers and Trees (Arizona Series)’ from 30 October 2024 – 20 July 2025. ‘Charles Gaines. The Fresno Years’ is currently on view at the Fresno Art Museum in California until 5 January 2025.

In 2022 Gaines launched his most ambitious public art project yet, ‘The American Manifest,’ presented by Creative Time, Governors Island Arts and Times Square Arts. The work features both performance and large-scale sculptural works to tell the complicated story of the over 400-year settlement of the United States, focusing on the country’s foundations of colonialism, racial capitalism, democracy, and the legacy of Manifest Destiny. The third and final part of this project will open in 2025 in Cincinnati OH.