Ken Wade: Artist statement
For any artist to have spent over fifty years painting & drawing while not selling much of his/her production; that artist has the dubious pleasure to be constantly reminded of the stunning impact of time and circumstances on his life & work
Originally I submitted ‘BEFORE & AFTER’ as work done a year or so before moving into Westbeth followed by drawings done a year or two after. But in the interim I discovered work done in rural-(bush)Tasmania,(1964. These small pencil on paper horse drawings were done at the time I began thinking I was an artist.
A new landscape, all kinds of odd animals and the out of this world night time sky was exciting and fired my imagination to make large-hyper-expressive-somewhat-outrageous paintings On the other hand, the horses I thought a gift, perfect models and far more accommodating than the nocturnal—ill tempered Tasmanian devil—
After moving from Tasmania to Melbourne in 1966 I met a lovely woman, and within a year we married, moved from Melbourne to London to Boston to Washington DC where I had my first American exhibition at The Corcoran Museum (1968) followed by a couple of shows at The Jefferson Place Gallery (69-70).
On New Years Day of 1970 Margot, our son Adam and I moved into WestBeth Artist Housing; My first experience of living in a building alongside hundreds of artists.
The Hallway show in 3 parts:
Part 1-March 2-31-Pencil on paper (1964 Tasmania).
Part 2— April 2-30. Pen & Ink on paper. Studying w/Tom Downing and seeing the works of Ken Noland, Tony Smith, Ronnie Bladen. (WashingtonDC 1967-69).
Part 3—A series of mono-print-drawings done not long after moving into WestBeth. (1970)
All work on paper for sale. POR Questions/comments contact: kenwade@me.com
BIO
Education
SUNY 1974 BFA
Corcoran School of Art. 1966
Tasmanian School of Art 1963
Teaching
Figure Drawing , Parsons School of Design 1976-90 Adjunct Professor of Art, Hunter College, NYC 1971-75
Selected Exhibitions
Argus Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 1966
Corcoran Museum, Washington DC, 1968
Jefferson Place Gallery, Washington DC, 1968-69
The Washington Painters. Baltimore Museum
Julian Pretto, NYC 1974
OK Harris , 1975
Artist Space, NYC,1979
Willard Gallery NYC, 1980
The Pioneer Show, WestBeth Gallery, 2008 Sideshow Gallery,, Brooklyn NY. 2010 Westbeth Gallery, NYC, 2010
Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus, 2011 Brick Gallery Hudson, NY 2012 ATT Open Studio. NYC 2014
Extravaganzas of Obscurity Project Room, 2015 Black & White Westbeth Gallery 2016
