Sterling Lawrence
Lie and Wait
28 October – 23 December 2011
Reception: Friday, 28 October, 6–8 pm
Tony Wight Gallery is pleased to present Lie and Wait, Sterling Lawrence’s first solo
exhibition.
Existing between hand-finished and mass-produced objects, Sterling Lawrence’s recent
body of work includes large inkjet-print gradients and sculptural forms resembling furniture.
The sculptures are reminiscent of furniture but deprived of their imagined utility: unplugged
lamps, empty tables and coat racks without coats. They alternate between formal sculpture
and furniture, between the attribution of meaning and the attribution of use, addressing the
definition of sculpture, its outward form and function.
Lawrence’s prints and sculpture create an absorptive environment. The gradients are printed
on backlit film traditionally used in transparency boxes. The translucent material shows the
color of the wall, imitates the banding of interior lighting and fills the nearby space with its
particular hue. The sculptures take the color of their environment while the prints fluctuate
between a backdrop and a potential image, projecting color out into the space, all with an
underlying tension: Where am I supposed to stand?
If the story ever had a start it might go like this:
The horizon is always receding.
Practice is like washing.
The more you practice the more you can see how much more you have to work.
Sterling Lawrence was born in Grants Pass, Oregon and lives and works in Chicago. He
received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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