Winston Wächter Fine Art, New York is excited to announce Sign Language, the gallery’s fourth solo exhibition with photographer Margeaux Walter. Through staged environments, studio lighting, and saturated imagery, Walter constructs colorful domestic scenes that explore the psychological effects of modern life.
These captivating compositions are photographed from the top down, a perspective that visually abstracts the scene by eliminating depth. The large-scale prints allow viewers to encounter varying levels of abstraction and familiar details, highlighting the interplay between the real and imagined. These stylized works reference modernist painting and the consumer culture revered in advertising. Primary, for example, is inspired by a Mondrian painting. Others, like Nova and Red Dot, are derived from the rugs featured in the photographs themselves. All works are made up of noticeably mass-produced home décor that Walter herself consumes and interacts with by performing each of the characters in the scenes she creates.
Walter’s compelling works depict familiar settings within the home, including quiet moments of respite as well as chaotic scenes involving spills, children, and chores. Walter evokes the anxiety and social isolation of domestic inhabitants that are consumed and seemingly trapped by their environment. Indeed, the figures themselves rarely interact, and their faces are often obscured. Yet, the colorful and ordered compositions somehow mask the vacancy of the scene, hinting at how we curate our external image and form our identity in the digital age.
Margeaux Walter was born in Seattle, Washington and currently lives and works in New York City. She received her MFA from Hunter College in 2014 and her BFA from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 2006. She has received multiple honors from the Magenta Foundation Flash Forward, Photolucida, Prix de la Photographie Paris, International Photography Awards, and other organizations. In 2017, Walter will participate in the MacDowell Colony Residency. In 2016, she was selected for the New York Times Portfolio Review. She has participated in dozens of exhibitions at institutions such as MOCA in Los Angeles, California, Hunterdon Art Museum in Clinton, New Jersey, The Center for Photography at Woodstock in Woodstock, New York, Montalvo Arts Center in Saratoga, California, Sonoma County Muesum in Santa Rosa, California, Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma, Washington, and the Griffin Museum of Photography in Winchester, Massachusetts. Her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, New York Post, Seattle Times, Boston Globe, and Blouin Art Info.
For further information, please contact Amanda Snyder at asnyder@winstonwachter.com or 212-255-2718
