BRENT WADDEN

Marking Wadden’s first-ever solo show in LA, this presentation is titled WHIMMYDOODLES in a nod to Bill Nye’s description of the overwhelming feelings that come with thinking about climate change, which he shared in a recent radio interview. The show will spotlight a new body of handwoven paintings of various sizes, including several large-scale pieces. A weaver and colourist, Wadden is known for his abstractions that unite traditions of painting, design, craft, and folk art.

Mounting his handwoven textiles on canvas, the artist transposes craft techniques into the realm of painting. Through enactments of warp and weft, he embraces the variations and idiosyncrasies that emerge in his compositions. Wadden’s deliberate and labor-intensive process of repetition reveals subtle disruptions in accumulations of line, color, texture, and form in his resulting works, which might be mistaken for conventional paintings from afar.

The artist often sources secondhand or found fabrics and yarns—including cotton, wool, acrylic, and hand-woven fibers—for his compositions, which he sketches in pencil before weaving. Using a backstrap and floor looms to produce his handwoven paintings, Wadden must forge these works line by line. Because this process allows for only a foot of textile to be seen at any given time, the artist does not know exactly how a final piece will look until it is released from the loom. For Wadden, this element of the unknown ‘is where the magic happens.’

The production of Wadden’s textiles is as significant as their aesthetic content. Through his practice, he pushes back against the demands of mass mechanised production along with the deleterious effects of consumer culture and capitalist thinking. The artist’s meticulously crafted works feature a dynamic sense of motion and depth only achieved through acts of diligence and care.

Wadden’s work is informed by various art historical movements, traditions, and figures. He has drawn inspiration from Abstract Expressionism and Bauhaus textiles in his investigations of geometry and colour. The artist’s use of clearly defined compositional grids, which often contain rhythmic and bold diagonals, can be understood in dialogue with the work of Agnes Martin; the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama; Frank Stella; and Anni Albers. Through his engagement with these influences, Wadden has nurtured a practice that collapses hierarchies and binaries of media and discipline.