Cory Arcangel 3- Cory Arcangel 3-

Cory Arcangel 3-

25 November 2022—21 January 2023
Salzburg Villa Kast
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Part of Cory Arcangel’s series of Scanner Paintings begun in 2010, the four new works on view in the exhibition 3– are based on depictions of various leisurewear textiles. The artist scans trousers from popular consumer brands, to which he adds his signature. He then prints enlarged details on IKEA LINNMON tabletops, which he combines in a collage-like manner to create his large-scale paintings. Arcangel’s most recent works reveal a new, minimalist quality in his œuvre, which contrasts with the early, brightly-coloured works from the series.

Part of Cory Arcangel’s series of Scanner Paintings begun in 2010, the four new works on view in the exhibition 3– are based on depictions of various leisurewear textiles. The artist scans trousers from popular consumer brands, to which he adds his signature. He then prints enlarged details on IKEA LINNMON tabletops, which he combines in a collage-like manner to create his large-scale paintings. Arcangel’s most recent works reveal a new, minimalist quality in his œuvre, which contrasts with the early, brightly-coloured works from the series.

While previous depictions of leggings, sweatpants, tracksuits, daisy dukes and ripped jeans employed a full palette, Arcangel’s most recent works veer towards abstraction. Earlier works from the series prominently feature various labels and logos, highlighting the growing global influence of sports brands throughout the 2010s, which are no longer necessary in the new works. Three white lines on a black background suffice to identify the Adidas trousers as an integral part of contemporary pop culture.

Characterised by their black surface, the works evoke associations with a number of art-historical references. Kazimir Malevich’s use of the non-colour in his Black Square embodied Suprematism’s liberation from the visual phenomena of the objective world, while Ad Reinhardt's Black Paintings illustrated that pigments on a surface have no fixed colour value, but react to their surroundings in tonal gradations. For Pierre Soulages, black was the beginning of the colour palette, and Richard Serra accepted only white as its equal. Arcangel applies the intense presence and incomparable radicalism of black to everyday aesthetics while simultaneously questioning the relevance of global fast fashion and branding. When the expectation that wearing the right outfit will generate belonging to a certain lifestyle is widespread, the individual purchasing decisions eventually become mainstream.
 
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