Paul Wackers is back at Eleanor Harwood Gallery in San Francisco with If You Can't See Me, I Can't See You, his 9th exhibition with the gallery. The paintings in Wackers’ new body of work such as, Shot Pattern, The Story Told is Not Always Yours to Know but Sometimes to Hold as a Thing to Wonder About, and Made Real With Care and Time, began as drawings. Wackers’ has always drawn but the move towards creating a drawing and using it as a template for his painting allows for more exploration of the paint and the gestural act of “painting” itself. Instead of creating the composition as he works he is now able to focus more on the contemplation of the paint itself. Wackers’ strength has always been the incredible variety of mark-making and painting styles he incorporates into each painting. This exhibition further moves towards even more painterly concerns and adds to complexity of the painting's surfaces.
Wackers’ attention to paint handling and variation in application is what sets him apart from other artists working with contemporary still life themes. In The Story Told is Not Always Yours to Know but Sometimes to Hold as a Thing to Wonder About, Wackers’ allows us to see how the painting was made. In the bottom center of the image, we see the painting rendered as an ink painting, showing us how the process began. This self-reflexivity and generosity allows a bit of humor to enter the paintings as he presents us with the painting’s initial map. The strange Christmas-tree like figure in the painting holds Wackers’ bundle of gifts under the tree. The painting is like an Easter egg hunt for those familiar with his paintings, collecting up shapes and objects that appear throughout his body of work.
Wackers’ combines the mundane with the impossible. This expressive approach transforms still-life compositions and landscapes into unexpected configurations. His latest body of work showcases a move towards a more experimental style.
