Leigh Wells

June 6 - July 12, 2008
Opening reception June 6 from 6 - 9pm

     

Gallery 16 is pleased to welcome San Francisco artist Leigh Wells for her first solo show
with the gallery. Wells will show a series of drawings and collage that involve altering
reproductions of historical artworks. For many years the artist has used existing images
of famous artworks as source material for her collage or platforms for her own mark-making.
Reproduction is the method through which most people view fine art, in art books, magazines,
newspapers etc. These relatively valueless copies of masterworks become raw material for
the artist. Wells interacts with these works and reinterprets their perceived meaning and
value.

One of the prominent collections in this show present the altered pages of a damaged book
on the work of Thomas Gainsborough. “I found this book on one of my street scavenges in
New York, probably in around 1997 or so. Thomas Gainsborough portrayed the British royalty
and aristocracy of the 18th century as it wished to be seen. I interact with images and documents
that represent cultural ideas, accepted history or religious ideology. By altering what is found,
I find a way to question or obscure the presumed point of view of their creators. This is an
attempt to disrupt reductive views of the world as they contrast to what I see as the
overwhelmingly complex and unknowable nature of reality.”

Wells was born in Oakland, CA and received her BFA from the Univeristy of San Francisco.
She has studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and Parsons/New School in New York.