California Smoke and Mirros

PAUL FRANK WAGNER

PAUL FRANK WAGNER ABSTRACT DRAWINGS

The selected abstract drawings were created from 2017 to 2019, during Paul Frank Wagner’s time in California. Behind the harmonious and seemingly innocent choice of layered colors and shapes, is an interpretation of America, different from that depicted in today’s media.

When first encountering this series of drawings, the viewer is met by a unified image. Upon a closer look, the observer is able to discern the multiple layers that make-up each work. The base layer alternates between bright colors and soft pastels mirroring the colors of nature, featuring California’s trademarked golden sunsets.

This American Dream is obscured with a layer of vellum paper, clouded by the haze from the forest fires of giant centennial trees burning in the summertime, blurring the apparently laid-back and sunny land of opportunities. Here, we’re reminded of the dichotomy of Californian ‘nature-lovers’ ardently seeking ‘contact with Gaia’ yet unable to make contact with each other in the fear of offending a minority, basically anyone living in the Bay Area. This frosty feel-good ‘be-nice’ filter, camouflaged in Black Lives Matter and Taco Food Trucks, is served up with a blanket of marijuana smothering the air and mind, a mandatory vaccine needed to numb the relentless feeling of isolation that is sensed by its settlers, the gold diggers.

The black and white dots that blur into a visual dance on the vellum paper, address the underlying societal tensions: homelessness, the broken dreams on L.A.’s Venice Beach, racism, the growing economic gap between Techies and the rest of the enslaved population kept afloat by Uber shifts.

The splashes of red and blue are reminiscent of the incessant sounds of police sirens and trains blowing their horns night after night, depriving residents from their restful sleep.

The underlying black circles create the rhythm that connect and balance the layers into one. They represent the Black culture, the pulse that holds America together.

Finally, the artist’s uncontrollable desire to escape this insanity is topped by the wild and irregular circular grey pencil lines, designed to release the tension and give the viewer an outbreak to find their harmony through the smoke into the mirror of their own reality.

Untitled #001, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, paint, gesso, pencil

Untitled #002, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, paint, gesso, pencil

Untitled #003, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, oil paint, gesso, pencil

Untitled #004, 2018, signed and dated Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint, crayon, pencil

Untitled #005, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, paint, crayon, pencil

Untitled #006, 2018, signed and dated Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, crayon, pencil

Untitled #007, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, oil paint, crayon, pencil

Untitled #008, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, gesso, crayon, pencil

Untitled #009, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint, crayon, pencil

Untitled #010, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, oil paint, crayon, pencil

Untitled #011, 2018, signed and dated Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, gesso, crayon, pencil

Untitled #012, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint, crayon, pencil

Untitled #013, 2018, signed and dated Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, gesso, crayon, pencil

Untitled #014, 2018, signed and dated Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint, crayon, pencil

Untitled #015, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #016, 2018, signed and dated Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint, crayon, pencil

Untitled #017, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint, crayon, pencil

Untitled #018 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint, crayon, pencil

Untitled #019 2018, signed Paul Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint, pencil

Untitled #020, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint, pencil

Untitled #021, 2018, signed and dated Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #022, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #023, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint, pencil

Untitled #024, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #025, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint marker, pencil

Untitled #026, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #027, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, paint marker, pencil

Untitled #028, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #029, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #030, 2018, signed and dated Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #031, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #032, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #033, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #034, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Ink, tape, pencil

Untitled #034, 2018, signed Dim. 20 cm x 20 cm Works on watercolor and vellum paper Tape, pencil

Glass Beach, Fort Bragg, California

SELECTED BIOGRAPHY 1970 Born in Paris, February 27, 1970 1991 Rock Installation, Washing Machine, St. Barths (French West Indies) 2005 NYU Broadway Windows, New York (USA) 2005 30 Ways To Do a Painting, Carl Solway Gallery, Cincinnati (USA) 2009 Scope Miami Beach, Solo Exhibition with Grey Gallery & LHP Productions (USA) 2014 For the Animals in the Forest, Sologne (France) & Award from Art Slant 2014 Intersections, Solo Show, Paris (France) 2016 Soleminis Installation, Sardegna (Italy) 2017 Gumballs, Art Residency at the Six Senses Zil Pasyon (Seychelles) 2018 Sticks & Stones Art Curriculum Launch in San Francisco… (USA) 2018 Farley’s, Solo Show, San Francisco (USA)

www.paulfrankwagner.com

Copyright Š 2019 Paul Frank Wagner Text: Š 2019 Paul Frank Wagner All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the artist.

Printed and Bound in Italy

by Paul Frank Wagner

Copyright © 2019 Paul Frank Wagner