WILLIAM WYLIE SPOLIA
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WILLIAM WYLIE SPOLIA
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WILLIAM WYLIE Artist Statement - “Spolia” Across the three decades I have made photographs in Italy, I have noticed what Italians call “spolia,” an ancient practice of taking an old stone previously used as a column or a capital or a grave marker and repurposing it in the building of something new. One reason people reused old materials was because they were available. But the practice was never just about recycling. It was also always about tapping into the power of what the stone had once been in the structure or monument where it had first appeared, the authority of the people who had shaped its initial use. I had this history in mind when I began making these collages in 2019. I found my stone, my equivalent of a piece of a column, in some antique writing practice books I found in a Japanese flea market. Most of the pages already displayed the configuration of a grid. Working with those empty squares as a platform eliminated the need to invent a new form. The grid allowed for an overall activation of the surface while maintaining a recognized structure. I soon evolved a serial approach, establishing certain parameters to govern how I would compose each image. The more I worked within the established framework, the more options I discovered in my source materials. I had been collecting commercially printed paper, such as old street posters from Italy and damaged illustrated books, and I saw the opportunity to revive the bits and pieces by making something new. Cut into strips and then into half-inch squares, those old papers became my stones. As I acknowledged the visual nature of the material and its possibilities for dynamic variation, I adopted practices of rotation, mirroring, and reversal. In this way, I introduced chance into the layouts and revealed new possibilities for endless transformation and alternative forms. The resulting body of work embodies what Italo Calvino defined as “lightness,” a capability in the face of “the weight and opacity of the world.”
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Spolia 65, 2022 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut and torn pasted papers mounted on paper $2,000 framed 6
Spolia 31, 2021 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut and torn papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 7
Spolia 2, 2019 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 8
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Spolia 13, 2020 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 10
Spolia 11, 2019 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 11
Spolia15, 2020 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 12
Spolia 14, 2020 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 13
Spolia 27, 2020 8.25 x 12 inches Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,500.00 framed 14
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Spolia 58, 2022 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 16
Spolia 28, 2020 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers and stamps mounted on book page $ 2,000.00 framed 17
Spolia 53, 2022 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut cyanotype prints mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 18
Spolia 67, 2022 7.5 x 5.25 inches Plastic sheet mounted on paper $ 2,000.00 framed 19
EKGrid, 2020 5.5 x 4.5 inches Cut papers mounted on sheet $ 1,500.00 framed 20
Spolia 37, 2021 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut and torn papers mounted on sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 21
Spolia 69, 2022 9.75 x 18 inches Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 3,000.00 framed 22
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Spolia19, 2020 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 24
Spolia 26, 2020 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 25
Spolia 21, 2020 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on book page $ 2,000.00 framed 26
Spolia 22, 2020 8.25 x 12 inches Cut papers mounted on book pages $ 2,500.00 framed 27
Spolia 41, 2021 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut and stained papers mounted on sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 28
Spolia 5, 2020 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on book page $ 2,000.00 framed 29
Spolia 33, 2021 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 30
Spolia 29, 2020 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 31
Spolia 6, 2019 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 32
Spolia 48, 2022 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers with gesso, mounted on sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 33
Spolia 64, 2022 13 x 9 inches Cut papers with gesso, mounted on sheet $ 2,500.00 framed 34
Spolia 63, 2022 12 x 8.75 inches Cut papers mounted on sheet $ 2,500.00 framed 35
Spolia 71, 2023 10 x 12 inches Cut papers with gesso, mounted on sheet $ 2,500.00 framed 36
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Pag. N. 1032, 2020 7.25 x 5.25 inches Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 38
Pag. N. 1050, 2020 7.25 x 5.25 inches Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 39
Spolia 8, 2020 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut photographs mounted on paper $ 2,000.00 framed 40
Spolia 9, 2019 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut papers mounted on gridded sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 41
Spolia 77, 2023 14 x 9 inches Cut papers mounted on sheet $ 2,500.00 framed 42
Spolia 73, 2023 8.25 x 6 inches, 15 x 12 inches framed Cut and torn papers mounted on sheet $ 2,000.00 framed 43
William Wylie Abbreviated CV Commonwealth Professor of Art, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia. EDUCATION 1989 MFA, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 1986 BFA, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. SELECT EXHIBITIONS (Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions in all caps) 2022 Other People’s Pictures: Selections from the Robert and Kerstin Adams Collection, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO Antiquity & America: Artists, Collectors, and the Ancient Mediterranean, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME 2021 Down the Line, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA THIS / THAT, A Dialog for Alighiero e Boetti, GoCA, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, CO New Light Encounters and Connections, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Architecture Shape & Color, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA 2020 STRUCTURES AND SPACE, Blitz Gallery, Tokyo, Japan THE POSSIBILITY OF RUINS, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA 2019 THIS / THAT, A Dialog for Alighiero e Boetti, Ruffin Gallery, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA The Carter Collection, Amon Carter Museum of Art, Fort Worth, TX 20/20, PBG 20th Anniversary Exhibit, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA POMPEII ARCHIVE, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT Blitz Collection: Landscapes, Blitz Gallery, Tokyo, Japan2019 THE EDGE OF SPACE, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA POMPEII ARCHIVE, Fralin Museum of Art, University of Virginia, VA Olin Hall Biennial, Roanoke College, Roanoke, VA 2018 POMPEII: PHOTOGRAPHS AND FRAGMENTS, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT POMPEII ARCHIVE, Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery, Nashville, TN Unexpected Encounters, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO SHADOWS OF THE FUTURE ANTERIOR, WILLIAM WYLIE / LEWIS BALTZ, Trinity University, San Antonio Hot, Hot, Hot, Page Bond Gallery, Richmond, VA WILLIAM WYLIE: RECENT WORK, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT POMPEII ARCHIVE, Gregory Allicar Museum of Art, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO PUBLICATIONS 2020 A Prairie Season, Flood Editions, Chicago, IL 2018 Pompeii Archive (The Possibility of Ruins), Yale University Press, New Haven, CN 2017 As the Crow Flies, Terri Weifenbach and William Wylie, Blitz Gallery, Tokyo, JPN 2010 Route 36, Flood Editions. Chicago, IL 2009 Carrara, CAP/Columbia, Chicago, IL 2002 Stillwater, Nazraeli Press, Tucson, AZ 2000 RiverWalk, Explorations along the Cache la Poudre River, University Press of Colorado, Boulder, CO 1989 Arboretum, hand-bound book of palladium prints, edition of 10 44
William Wylie Abbreviated CV
SELECT COLLECTIONS Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas Capitol One Corporation, Richmond, Virginia Center for Creative Photography, Tucson, Arizona City of Denver Public Art Collection, Colorado Colorado Historical Museum, Denver, Colorado Davidson College Art Museum, Davidson, North Carolina deCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado Elgin Community College, Chicago, IL Fralin Museum of Art, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia Graham Nash Editions, Los Angeles, California High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, NE List Art Center, Brown University, Providence, R.I. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Museo del Marmo, Carrara, Italy Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College, Chicago, IL Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri Nevada Museum of Art, CLUI Archives, Reno, NV New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, LA New York Public Library, New York, NY Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, MA Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, New Jersey St Louis Art Museum, St Louis, Missouri Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC The Sol and Carol LeWitt Collection, Chester, CT Trinity University, San Antonio, TX Vanderbilt University Art Gallery, Nashville, TN Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut
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WILLIAM WYLIE SPOLIA
Catalog Design Rachel Crawford, Registrar To purchase or inquire, please email us at admin@pagebondgallery.com
PAGE BOND GALLERY 804-352-3694 pagebondgallery.com 1520 W Main St, Ste 204, Richmond, VA 23220
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