Opening Thursday, February 5, 2009, Wako Works of Art is very pleased to present a solo exhibition of new works by James Welling. This will be the artist’s sixth solo show at Wako Works of Art.

James Welling was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1951. He studied sculpture at Carnegie Mellon University and later graduated from California Institute of the Arts, where he worked mainly in video. He relocated to New York in 1978, where he started his photographic projects. Today, his subject matter and methods are wide-ranging from documentary subjects (architecture, factories, landscapes), to everyday objects (aluminum, drapery, gelatin, flowers) that are abstract in form. Incorporating both analog and digital processes, his work pursues photography in its entirety.

This exhibition will include the artist’s new and recent series, such as Glass House, which captures Philip Johnson’s historic residence in New Canaan, Connecticut; using vivid color filters, the works are given an altering look at the art and architectural landmark. Also on view will be New New Abstractions, a return to his previous series from 1998; Quadrilateral series made from the use of Maya computer graphics program to render shadows in a monochrome photogram of cut boards; and a unique Torso piece, photogram of fabric contorted into body-like forms. With his career now spanning 30 years, this exhibition will give a comprehensive look at the artist’s work today.

Welling has been the subject of numerous exhibitions in Europe and the US; he was recently included in the Whitney Biennial in 2008. His work is in the permanent collections of the Centre Pompidou, Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Currently based in Los Angeles, CA, Welling is the head of the department of photography at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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