SLAG & RX Galleries are honored to pay tribute to Jerry Walden (1941-2019) and present a solo exhibition of paintings from the early 1970s and the 2010s. This exhibition will feature four hard-edged minimal and one figurative acrylic painting from the early 1970s and 15 hard-edged acrylic on canvas or panel paintings of the artist's late career from the 2010s.
Special thanks to Robert Walden, his son, for his assistance and trust.
This exhibition is a rediscovery of Walden's rigorous conceptual thinking and prodigious output in over 50 years of studio practice in American college towns outside of major metropolitan art centers. This relative isolation gave the artist the mental space to explore formalism fundamentals in either geometric or figurative guises without the distractions and whims of the contemporary art market. Thus, viewers are afforded an exceptional opportunity to experience an overlooked idiomatic artistic perspective.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog with an essay written by Lilly Wei.
About the artist:
Jerry Walden's work has been exhibited across the US and around the world, including these institutions: The Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC; Birmingham Museum of Art, AL; the Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS; the Columbia Museum of Art, SC; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, AL; Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts, Little Rock, AR and the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, TN; Palazzo Vagnotti, Italy; Nam-Do Fine Arts Center Gallery, South Korea; The Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, SC; Alaska State Museum, Juneau, and The Mississippi Pavilion at The Louisiana World Exposition, New Orleans; among others. His work is in numerous public and private collections, including: the Columbia Museum of Art, SC; Capitol One Bank; The Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC; the Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA; Greenville National Bank Collection, MS; Delta State University, Cleveland, MS; The Meridian Museum of Art, MS; and others. Taking advantage of the GI Bill for his service in the US Air Force (1960-62) Jerry Walden earned his BFA from Auburn University (Auburn, AL) in 1968 and his MFA in painting from the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia (Athens, GA) in 1971.