Wick Gallery is pleased to present “From Swatches of Heaven and Hell,” a solo exhibition of works by Adams Puryear. This installation amplifies the larger search in Puryear’s practice—relating physical objects to a virtual feed in an ongoing, metabolic loop.
The objects carry the language and process of vessel making itself, evidencing the undeniable residue of handwork. Rhythmic fingertip impressions clue us in to the history of Puryear’s forms, fossilized by extreme heat and duress. When the morass of images become too dense to question meaningfully, we look to matter that moves at a different pace, from inert fired clay to a slow, pink ooze that leaks in real time. Interior spaces have holes and passages for material to flow more easily, poured out in formless sheets. Ripples of footage appear as a backdrop, with tiny croppings of atmospheric speed. The work asks us to hold everything in the same grasp—the forces out of our control, the things we want to revere and rest on, and the extra samplings that don’t seem to belong anywhere.