John Wesley

WesleyWorld: Works on Paper and Objects 1961–2004

Wesley, who died in 2022 at age 93, maintained a remarkably consistent approach to image-making throughout his career. Marked by eroticism, wry humor, and often a slight sense of unease, Wesley’s work defies easy classification within any single artistic movement.

Featuring a commissioned essay by art historian Richard Shiff, the digital catalogue, available to read above, includes photography of each work on paper and painted object in the gallery’s show—its first-ever presentation dedicated to Wesley. A selection of detail images in the catalogue shed light on the artist’s experimentations with repeating, layering, and mirroring images in his flattened, idiosyncratic figurations. The digital book also examines the various cultural subjects and ideas that entered his visual lexicon over the course of five decades.