Ian Waelder, 'insert'

17 Jul-15 Aug 2026

PV 16 Jul 2026, 6-8pm

Overview

This ongoing series of paintings acts as a veil for a constantly expanding archive of cinematic stills collected by the artist. By overlapping two layers of fabric, a play of perception, depth and scale comes to the forefront, the stain blurring into the figures beneath, constantly changing depending on the position of the viewer. Each canvas in this set returns to the recurring appearance and absence of a particular car model, one his grandfather owned in Stuttgart, before being forced to sell it to escape the country in 1939. With each revisitation of this image, Waelder shifts the attention away from the vehicle towards peripheral figures, a gesture that mirrors the way memory can digress and lead to abstraction. In each of the works, a group of children circles a tree with abandon, set against the unspoken tension of the time.