For Walter Price, an Artwork Is Finished When Feeling Funky

Walter Price b. 1989, United States Follow +

Purple was the punch of the month for Walter Price‘s solo exhibition Pearl Lines (1–28 March 2024) across Modern Art’s two London locations.

The exhibitions at Helmet Row and Bury Street certainly felt funky, with violet gesso, lilac gaffer-taped canvases, and indigo frames, the whole set against maroon walls and brown carpeted floors.

And for the American artist, born in Macon, Georgia, this was the intention. Or rather, ‘when it feels funky’ is his criteria for knowing when to put the paintbrush down.

Yet a walk around the exhibition, you learn that ‘finished’ is a moveable goalpost for Price. His tendency to make good of the old is seen in the gaffer-taped Handle with Care (2024), where he has wrapped strips of lilac tape around the remains of a painting past.

Price’s studio is overflowing with preparatory sketches, a discipline no doubt learnt while serving in the U.S. Navy between 2007 and 2011, before attending the Art Institute of Washington where he received his BA.

While not represented by Modern Art, Price’s exhibition is part of an ongoing collaboration between the London gallery and Greene Naftali, who represent Price in New York. The two galleries share representation of Justin Caguiat and Jacqueline Humphries.

A solo exhibition of Price’s work opens at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, in August 2024.

Price’s work can be found in the permanent collections of Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Tate, London; and Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.

Main image: Walter Price, Cross Modal Perception (2023). Acrylic, gesso, gouache, vinyl, chromepen on wood. 45.7 x 61 cm. Courtesy Modern Art.