Dan Walsh: Still @ Galerie Tschudi, Zürich
Still is a solo show by American artist Dan Walsh. Exhibited at Galerie Tschudi in Zürich, Switzerland, the display of works delves into the roots of abstraction through meditative geometry and human contemplation. Across the gallery’s white wall space, the collection of patterned works generates a dialogue between the monochromatic and bright colour qualities in the disposition of the hung works. Completing the display Walsh’s Artist Books unveil his creative process and introspective originality.
Dan Walsh, LHP-INK 8, 2023. Ink on Lana hot press paper, 66 x 66cm (73.8 x 73.8cm framed). Photo Courtesy: Galerie Tschudi.
Chosen by the artist himself, the title of the exhibition, Still, encompasses several meanings. Focussing on the grammatical use of the word , a connotational dispute arises as it is not placed within a complete sentence. Therefore the title of the exhibition can implicate the multiple meanings of both the adjective and the adverb.
Dan Walsh, Still, 2024. Installation View. Photo Courtesy: Galerie Tschudi.
Firstly, as an adjective it refers to an embodied sense of tranquillity and calmness in the care taken to control the repetitive gesture typical of Walsh’s works. The tedious motion alludes to the act of painting as a form, across which silent gestures create sequential patterns that evoke a meditative state. This condition of tranquillity can be felt both by the artist, when creating the piece and perpetuated onto the viewer when experiencing the artworks.
Secondly, the semantic shift of the word “still” to an adverb, investigates the permanence of the artist’s gesture after the colour sets on the surface. Following the repetition, layering, and projection of the pattern, the work becomes permanent. Moreover, the works are never sketched or predetermined before initiating the sequential movements. This creates a spontaneous yet rigid dynamism, as the paint sets or results “still” instantly when in contact with the canvas, enhancing the symmetrical precision and improvisation of the artist.
Therefore, the change in use of the word “still” from an adverb – emphasising that something is continuing – to the use as an adjective – to say that something is not moving – is contradicting yet seems to encapsulate the dialogue between continuum, movement and stillness within the works of the exhibition.
Dan Walsh, Still, 2024. Installation View. Photo Courtesy: Galerie Tschudi.
Based in New York, Dan Walsh is a painter, printmaker, bookmaker and sculptor. Over his career he has developed a recognisable elegance across the contemporary minimalist current by combining rigorous geometry with a bright playful spirit. Collaborating in Curatorial Projects and exhibiting in artist group and solo shows since the beginning of the 1990s, Dan Walsh has become an internationally acclaimed artist. His participation in several globally renowned Biennials has led him to be included in highly regarded institutions – such as The Museum of Modern Art, New York, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht and the Musée d’art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva – establishing a global creative presence.
Walsh studies the application of paint on different surfaces by using lines to form grids, patterns, and rhythms with a looseness of hand by mixing short, long, opaque and transparent strokes. The images are simple in execution but visually complex in nature. The works on paper celebrate human imperfection and illustrate the flawed process of creation across a repetitive introspective journey. To quote the artist himself, Walsh says “I call myself a minimalist: getting the most out of the least”. The use of simple colours, gestures and shapes does not limit the artist in creating intriguingly deep colour compositions and vibrating precise patterns. Oppositely, these limitations illustrate the genius creativity being the artist’s innovative controlled repetitive and sequential gestures.
Dan Walsh, LHP-WC 7, 2023. Ink on Lana hot press paper, 66 x 66cm (73.8 x 73.8cm framed). Photo Courtesy: Galerie Tschudi.
Dan Walsh, LHP-WC 8, 2023. Ink on Lana hot press paper, 66 x 66cm (73.8 x 73.8cm framed). Photo Courtesy: Galerie Tschudi.
The exhibition takes place across the main floor of the gallery – where the majority of the works are exhibited – and in two small viewing rooms on the first floor – with one hung work on paper and a display of Walsh’s Artist Books. The white wall nature of the gallery highlights the vivid geometrical compositions of the artist, drawing the viewers’ attention as soon as they enter the gallery. As the Gallery is located on the busy street Rämistrasse in Zürich, Switzerland, the works on paper displayed across the exhibition draw attention to the gallery’s wide street facing windows. The busy linear compositions dialogue with the rigid city structure, and shine colour on the concrete dominated environment.
Walsh uses linear but erratic geometric designs to investigate how colour and space are perceived. The artist incorporates indications of life things into his freehand strokes, deviating from formal precision. His colour layers and juxtaposition provide depths and volumes that make his figures float above or sink below the surface of the image. By working primarily with paper, Walsh takes advantage of the absorbent fibre of the medium to “leave a mark” whilst performing the repetitive and meditative gesture. Therefore, the works on paper appear to retain the memory of the artist’s hand as well as the tool. Visible mostly in the black and white works, the brush’s bristles bind together and fragment the trace they leave on the surface. The contrast between the black paint and the white paper creates an intricate growing line system, creating a sequence of visually illusive images.
Dan Walsh, LHP-INK 7, 2023. Ink on Lana hot press paper, 66 x 66cm (73.8 x 73.8cm framed). Photo Courtesy: Galerie Tschudi.
Dan Walsh, LHP-INK 1, 2023. Ink on Lana hot press paper, 66 x 66cm (73.8 x 73.8cm framed). Photo Courtesy: Galerie Tschudi.
The displayed works encompass visual, tangible and sound qualities across the vibration of the gesture and colours used by the artist. Moreover, Walsh recently released a book with a collection of images showing the laborious process that goes into his paintings. Within the text a brilliant comparison between the work of a weaver and of his own arises, drawing similarities between the grid pattern and contradictory environment of rhythm, repetition, texture, noise, and silence.
The images encompass the sounds the brush’s various strokes generated during the artist's meditative creation and perpetuate the motion of sound across depicted patterns, taking on a tangible harmonious quality. The overlap of colours generates new tints and contrasts the transparency where the brush has only crossed once. The repetition generated by the motion of the tool creates texture to the work and generates a woven rhythmic pattern. The precision within the motion generating the shapes, strengthens the melodious vibration between the visual repetitive movement and the tranquillity in tedious sound. The artist creates a grid between his artistic language and the viewer by explaining that all simple shapes compose the images that comprise our memories. Therefore, the artist has perfected his artistic communicative lexicon by summarising memories into images, images into shapes, and creative compositions of shapes which make up memories.
Dan Walsh, Still, 2024. Artist Books Installation View. Photo Courtesy: Grace Jamieson Bianciardi.
The Artist Books shine a unique perspective into the artists creative process, which usually is not available to view, admire or study. The books contain and provide insight into the process of creating a painting or print, the way colours and forms blend together, the use of photography as a tool for documenting thought and the organic nature of composition and structure. Although Walsh’s end product is essentially geometric and grid-based, there is an evident self-study and idiosyncratic artistic process behind the meditative recurring gesture typical of his works.
Dan Walsh, Still, 2024. Artist Books Installation View. Photo Courtesy: Galerie Tschudi.
Overall, Still provides a deep understanding of the artist’s creative journey across the combination of his displayed works and the Artist Books. The analysis of the title creates a symbiotic meaning pointing towards the contradictions of meditation and creative introspection. The choice of colours and patterns create different visual and emotional effects when confronted both with the singular works and the similar repetitiveness of the exhibition as a whole. Finally, the repetitive patterns, driven by the artist’s precise gestures and across the use of bright layered colours, creates a one of a kind collection of works.
Still by Dan Walsh is on display at Galerie Tschudi in Zurich, until 23 March 2024.
Grace Jamieson Bianciardi
Reviews Co-Editor, MADE IN BED