NEW YORK, June 17, 2009—PaceWildenstein is pleased to announce a new installation by Corban Walker at 534 West 25th Street, New York City from June 26 through July 31, 2009. The artist’s three new glass sculptures, the result of his recent experiments with the process of casting glass in rigid forms, will be on view in the East gallery.
Corban Walker gained recognition for his installations, sculptures, and drawings that relate to perceptions of scale and architectural constructs. Local, cultural, and specific philosophies of scale are fundamental to how he defines and develops his work, creating new means for viewers to interact and navigate their surroundings. The new glass pieces in Walker’s installation are the culmination of his recent experimentation with the difficult process of manipulating glass forms to create rigid edges. The artist began each project with the premise of making a hollow box and used three different work processes to achieve unique ends.
In 2008 Walker worked with master glass fabricators in a glass factory outside of Prague in the Czech Republic that specializes in Borosilicate glass. Walker blew into a rectilinear mold to create hollow glass rectangles that he stacked together, relying on gravity to hold the delicate yet resilient units in place without the use of adhesion. In addition to a grouping of these hollow-blown stacks, Untitled (10 x 4 Miter), 2009, a stack constructed from 40 square hollow glass tubes, will be on view. Each of the 40 individual units comprising the sculpture were created at a multi-international manufacturer based in Brno, Czech Republic from a specific glass plate form designed by Walker which was cut and mitered to make the rectangular units. At 47-1/8" x 22-3/4" x 28-3/8", the stack is within the scale of the artist’s own height of 4 feet. Untitled (Less 50º Sand) was conceived of at a residency at The Glass Museum in Tacoma, Washington in November of 2008. This 27-1/4" x 25" wall-relief is composed of 36 glass cubes cut at 50º angles and mounted on a painted black background. Walker explains:
The three different stacking arrangements of the pieces mark an intervention in the gallery space that is minimal and also theatrical, where the viewer becomes the fourth element in the installation. I am interested in the perception of scale and architecture; how we determine our surroundings whether in a domestic dwelling or a public environment. To me, a contradiction plays an essential part of this organization where glass objects occupy the space and yet present a visceral void in navigating the installation. I question the assessment of the rules of scale and measure that we seem to hold on to as the basis of our relationship between body and structure. This also applies to the material; glass always wants to be spherical and when enormous stress is applied to create rectilinear objects the glass becomes awkward; defying the norm.
From August through January 2010, Walker’s Wall 1 (2006-2007), a 3' x 12' x 10' aluminum and stainless steel sculpture, will be on view at LentSpace, a temporary park created by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council at the convergence of Canal, Varick and Grand Streets in New York City. Work by Walker can also presently be seen at The American Irish Historical Society in New York, and from August 7–16, in the group exhibition Something Else at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, Rothe House, Ireland. This fall, The Golden Bough: Corban Walker will go on view at The Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Art in Dublin (September 30, 2009–January 16, 2010).
Corban Walker (b. 1967, Dublin, Ireland) graduated with honors from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin, with a degree in Fine Art Sculpture, in 1992. His first solo show was held in 1994 and since then, he has mounted numerous solo exhibitions and realized eight public commissions worldwide. Walker first exhibited at PaceWildenstein’s Greene Street gallery in the fall of 2000 and his work was included in the gallery’s Logical Conclusions exhibition (2004) alongside works by key artists from the 20th century who use objective systems to explore the complex and chaotic realms of the subjective. His 2007 exhibition at the 25th Street gallery, Corban Walker: Grid Stack, presented the artist’s foray into aluminum, steel, and industrial materials alongside his architecturally striking glass works. Corban Walker has lived and worked in New York since 2004.
