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Anna Matos, Gallery Director                                         September 15, 2022

wallworksny@gmail.com

 

WALLWORKS NEW YORK CELEBRATES A HISTORICAL ARTIST IN A NEW AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING EXHIBITION BY JOE LEWIS

 

BRONX, NEW YORK (SEPTEMBER 15, 2022) – WALLWORKS NEW YORK is pleased to announce our latest exhibition, White Universe Dark Matter, a solo show from renowned artist Joe Lewis, opening, September 17, 2022.

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Lewis' exhibition, which takes over the WALLWORKS gallery space in various installations, site-specific works, sculptures and more traditional paintings, is an endeavor three years in the making. Drawn to the social commentary from early on in 2020, Lewis describes the exhibition as follows:

 

What if the universe were white?

 

"…if the Universe appeared to be white instead of black, it would mean that it's infinitely old, infinitely big, and static at the same time. That would make it a different Universe altogether."

 

A different universe indeed...

 

I remember reading that "Purity" and "Immensity" were the building blocks of modernism. As I grew older, it became evident that those words were the taproots of "Privilege" instead of foundations. I admit the colorblindness of it all blinded me. For years, I watched the incongruity of a static, old universe with a finite number of principals rumble through an infinitely large space that would be brighter if it had left a place for opposing views of the Universe. Suppose it didn't crush us with its cosmic weight and claims of superiority.

 

It's very seductive, the language, the conventions, the monuments, the control. Like pi, for instance, it goes on forever and ever and ever. But, once I took off those star-framed glasses - those enormous self-luminous celestial bodies of gas were perforated by dark matter, revealing its truth; standing in the light is nowhere near perfect. And those of us who choose not to acquiesce, though burdened by shadows, especially when we shine, must shine a hard light on the hegemony of the times until the Universe reflects our light.

 

When asked about the upcoming exhibition, gallery director Anna Matos shared: "It's a departure for us in terms of presentation, but the subject matter remains the same--this is art about what is happening today and marking that we are here. And there is something almost poetic about showing one of Fashion MODA's originals in our space that was very much influenced by their model, 40 years almost to the day of CRASH's curated GAS Exhibition there. It all comes full circle."

 

White Universe Dark Matter will run until October 21, 2022. All works will be available, along with a limited number of albums and books from Joe Lewis.