Paige Wery Review by Christopher Russell, artUS, January 2008
ArtUS
Here it is with extra images than originally published added by me.
It appears that no part of the Los Angeles art scene is now left unscathed by the proliferation of art school graduates. Even the nonprofit sector, which is understandably limited, tends to look to school clout in its programming. Indeed, gone is the old romantic myth of the solitary genius striking out on his own, seemingly snuffed out by the stamp of cultural endorsement. Once-revered vagabonds and anarchists like Rimbaud seem so antiquated and out of place that it's hard to imagine anybody like that hanging out in the art world any more, even though revolutionary ideals continue to be taught in art schools.
With little evident concern for historical or school context, Paige Wery's "My Sentiments Exactly" goes at it like the "I" in the storm, scattering trash around as if color itself amounted to expression, and adding found objects to paint with almost architectural persistence.
Rosey (all work 2007), which looks remarkably like a Christmas wall decoration,
And as if the sight of a largely green contraption popping off the bright pink wall weren't enough, the piece also juts outwards into the gallery space, projecting a Brechtian "fourth wall" of her own.
Another mixed-media work, Foxy, offers a faux-cubist canine creature,
In the smaller Suzie's Poo,
The indiscreet charm of this show, the appealing muddle that lots and lots of junk can create, is hard to beat, despite the artist's own admission that, "Being so poor in the past, art materials became sacred [to me]."
The sacred aside, Wery, who refuses to throw away anything from her studio, even every last drop of paint, fresh or dried, is far too busy to worry about school ties, whatever this might have to say about blowing the lid on anal-retentiveness. But compared with the schoolyard tales mostly told today, it's still a great relief.