Everyday motifs between abstraction and figuration

The young, unconventional artist Walter Price (*1989) has already attracted attention with his impasto application of paint and in some cases a tangle of lines, symbols and signs. The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis is now offering him his biggest stage to date: Price's most extensive solo show provides insights into the painter's development, especially from 2017 to the present day. Some exhibits have never been on public display before, including one that has been in the Walker Art Center's possession since 2020. Price committed himself to a mix of abstraction and figuration, in which everyday objects and environments are often recognizable. His paintings contain allusions to socio-political and cultural events of the past and present, but these are so ambiguous that it is impossible to assign them precisely. Price therefore does not represent contemporary events but uses them as a starting point to evoke emotional effects in the viewer. He wants to convey the unpleasant in a bearable, non-deterrent way and thus create access to reflection. At the same time, the formal investigation of painting is an important aspect of Price's work, which goes against a widespread demand that Black artists should reflect the experiences of Black people. The exhibition Walter Price: Pearl Lines, comprising over twenty paintings, runs from August 8 to December 8.

Price, who has refrained from using social media since 2017, has used the title Pearl Lines for several solo exhibitions, for example in Hamburg, New York and Glasgow (2023, 2022 and 2020). He wants to express that his paintings are part of a larger, constantly growing body of work, the artist's overall oeuvre, and should not just be perceived as individual art objects. Price has also exhibited in various group exhibitions, including at the Studio Museum (2017) and the Whitney Biennial (2019), both in New York. His works can be found in the collections of the Astrup Fearnley Museet in Oslo, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.