untitled

Celebrated for his appropriation of cultural symbols, Kelley Walker's Untitled (2008) turns to the streets of New York, as well as international mass publications. Creating a canvas that would spark the viewer to lash out, cut, or graffiti it, Walker's meticulously printed patterns of bricks and cinder blocks are juxtaposed with collaged newspaper. Marking the painting in time, in a practice similar to On Kawara's Date Paintings, Kelley records the source of his collaged material by attaching the front of the newspaper to the back of his canvas. However, unlike the newspapers that accompany On Kawara's work, which are specific to the location of their creation, Walker utilizes mass publications on a global scale.

Of these specific paintings, Walker has designated that they can be hung in any orientation that the curator or collector prefers. He explains, "With the installation of these works, I think of the canvas as having a mimetic relationship not only to the wall the painting might be displayed on, but also to the structure of the bricks and cinder blocks in the urban cityscape of New York. Outside my studio window, I see various ways these buildings materials are used-structurally as well as decoratively, stacked both horizontally and vertically." (K. Walker quoted in Y. Aupetitalliot (ed.) Kelley Walker, exh. cat., MAGASIN Centre national d'Art Contemporain, Grenoble, pg. 76)