Fold, Stack, Turn: ektor garcia
Brontez Purnell
Gabriela Vainsencher
Stefanie Victor
John Walker
Bill Walton, Adams and Ollman, Portland, OR,
August 1–September 3, 2020

Jessica Jackson Hutchins and Brontez Purnell in conversation

Adams and Ollman is pleased to announce Fold, Stack, Turn, a group exhibition on view at the gallery in Portland from August 1 through September 3. The exhibition includes video, sculpture and works on paper by artists who perform simple gestures—folding fabric, turning the body, linking leather or stacking found objects—to create complex meaning.

ektor garcia (1985, Red Bluff, CA; lives and works between Mexico City and New York) creates seemingly utilitarian objects—a vessel, a screen or rope—made through various movements of his hands: twisting, wrapping, looping, knotting and braiding. These repetitive gestures continue traditions of labor and making from his family in Mexico.

Brontez Purnell (b. 1982, Triana, AL; lives and works in Oakland, CA) presents Free Jazz, a dance “mixtape” shot on 8mm film by cinematographer Gary “Fembot” Gregerson that documents “various dance parties, structured improvs, rituals and happenings” performed by the artist’s dance company between 2010 and 2012. Moving between genres, histories, identities and intentions, the body frees itself through improvisation from expectations.

Gabriela Vainsencher’s (b. 1982, Buenos Aires, Argentina; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) sculptures start as flat slabs of porcelain which the artist then folds and turns into three dimensions. The resulting works are hybrids of body parts—breasts, muscles, hips, labia, and arms—in the classic shapes, forms and flourishes of ancient Greek vessels.

Stefanie Victor’s (b. 1982, New York, where she lives and works) works speak to the body and the senses of sight and touch. Victor’s artistic practice prioritizes intimacy and incorporates the confines of the body, studio and home to create meaning. In night (2011), Victor explores the imaginative potential for new uses for domestic objects. Starting with a pillow—itself an intimate object and one that has its own meaning and history—Victor haptically wills an image into being, rolling chalk with her hands over the soft surface. As the viewer watches Victor physically transform the pillow into a painting, the context and encounter shift from the realm of the familiar and useful toward something more personal and evocative.

Fold, Stack, Turn also includes collages by John Walker (b. 1939, Birmingham, England; lives and works in South Bristol, ME). Often described as an anti-scenic painter, his works on paper are angular and aggressive—graphic, forceful lines are stacked, twisted and ripped into a cohesive but clashing composition. His stripes and zigzags are a visual equivalent to the movement, emotion, beauty and fierceness of the coastal landscape that he has made the subject of his work for many years.   

Over the course of more than forty years, Bill Walton (b. 1931, Camden, NJ—d. 2010, Philadelphia, PA) made a poetic body of work using common materials such as floorboards, wisteria branches, and paper napkins from his favorite diner, while employing simple gestures like stacking, folding, and turning. In this sense, he adopted the formal language of Minimalism—yet his works are also highly personal, handmade and small-scale. He chose never to date his works, believing rather that they were always in process and that materials were informed by their own histories, which they would bear as they subtly transformed over time.

Works

Bill Walton
Untitled, n.d.
wood, lead, paint, paper cup
7 x 5 x 6 inches
BW 1051


Bill Walton
Untitled, n.d.
wood, lead, paint, paper cup
5 x 10 1/4 x 2 inches
BW 1052


Gabriela Vainsencher⁣
Lips, Wave, Amphora, Tits, Muscles, Elbows, Neck, 2018
porcelain and underglaze
16 1/2 x 10 1/2 x 3 inches
GVa001



Bill Walton
1/4 Turn (Split), n.d.
wood, pigment and wax
each, 2 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 34 inches
BW 0846


ektor garcia
hombre cadena de cuero, 2018
hand cut and laser cut leather, copper wire
100 x 10 inches
ekgarc 003




Brontez Purnell with the Brontez Purnell Dance Company, Gary Fembot Gregerson and Jerry Lee
Free Jazz, 2012
8 mm black and white film
TRT 23:50 minutes
BPur001


John Walker
Looking Out to Sea I, 2016
mixed media on paper
18 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches
JW16_04


John Walker
Looking Out to Sea II, 2016
mixed media on paper
18 1/2 x 16 1/2 inches
JW16_05


Bill Walton
Sweet Lou & Marie (#3), n.d.
cotton, gesso, linen, oil paint, concrete
8 3/4 x 8 x 7 1/2 inches
BW 0724


Bill Walton
Four Folded, n.d.
linen, gesso
14 x 55 1/2 inches
BWal 16





Stefanie Victor
night, 2011
HD video
TRT 1:27 minutes
edition of 2, 1 AP
SVic 201104


Bill Walton
Sue's Coat #2, n.d.
linen, acrylic, bronze
10 1/2 x 11 5/8 x 9/16 inches
BW 0781


Bill Walton
Jack’s Hill #1, n.d.
wood, aluminum, copper, primed cloth
3 x 12 x 13 1/2 inches
BW 0700


Bill Walton
1/4 Turn, n.d.
wood, paint
7 3/4 x 3 3/4 x 8 1/4 inches
BW 0890


Bill Walton
Three Fold, n.d.
linen, paint
6 x 5 inches
BW 0558


Bill Walton
Folded Signs #1, n.d.
oil paint on copper, oil paint on napkin on panel
left: 3 7/8 x 2 3/8 inches, right: 4 1/2 x 4 inches; installed: 4 1/2 x 8 inches
BW 0827