Tappan art collective presents the work of Michael Wall, whose abstract canvases rely on their viewer for completion
Bound by a search for creativity and authenticity, AnOther has partnered with LA-based art collective Tappan, an initiative that was born out of a desire to reinvent the experience of buying art, to share stories about its artists.
It’s “for the viewer,” explained Michael Wall when asked to describe his practice in three words – and the apparent simplicity of this statement goes a long way to pinpointing the resonance of the London-based artist’s works. Large in scale and abstract in subject matter, they balance unnameable minimalist forms on expanses of canvas, colour and shape teetering together in compositions which rely on their onlookers for completion. It’s a seemingly simple concept, yet remarkably difficult to pull off effectively, and in Wall’s case it makes for a captivating combination.
A heavy triangle – volcanic in appearance – supports a haze of blue in one of these large pieces, a curvaceous mist teetering above a canyon in another. To each viewer a different subject appears; this is Rorschach in its most aesthetically pleasing form, and it packs quite a punch when hung on a wall. Currently, Wall is experimenting with 3D elements to take this playful process to a new level – concrete, foam and the like all playing their part in further pushing the potential subject matter of Wall’s works.
With such themes underpinning his emphatic images, it perhaps doesn’t come as a surprise that Wall considers Kazimir Malevich, the avant-garde Russian painter largely considered the grandfather of geometric abstract art, to be the artist who has played the most profound role in his work so far. “I don’t know how connected I am to him but his work has been in the background influencing my practice from the beginning,” he says by way of explanation. “I don’t know if we are on the same page, but maybe in the same big book.”
For more information on Michael Wall, and to buy his works, visit Tappan.
