C.K. Wilde
Installation view. 2015
Installation view. 2015
Burdens. 2015
Cast plastic, low rpm motor, glass bell jar, sculpture stand
Sculpture: 5 3/4 x 4 ½ diameter, stand: 48 x 12 x 12”
Edition of 5
(CW15 01)
Patrice Lumumba. 2015
Collage of paper ephemera on museum board, nailed rubber frame
45 3/8 x 32 ½”
(CW15 02)
Leopold II. 2015
Collage of paper ephemera on museum board, nailed rubber frame
45 ¼ x 33”
(CW15 03)
Spare. 2015
Copper pennies, turmeric, polyvinyl adhesive, framed
52 ¾ x 8’5”
(CW15 04)
Installation view. 2015
Installation view. 2015
Emptiness Portrait of Thich Quang Duc. 2006
Currency collage, polyvinyl adhesive on museum board, framed
24 5/8 x 24 3/4”
(CW15 05)
Thrift. 2010
Currency collage on museum board, matted & framed
Frame: 9 5/8 x 16 7/8”
(CW15 06)
Last Piece of Pie (after Thiebaud). 2013
Currency collage on museum board, matted & framed
Frame: 9 ¾ x 14 ¾”
(CW15 07)
Rumpelstiltskin. 2008
Currency collage on museum board mounted on plywood, framed
27 ½ x 27 1/2”
(CW15 08)
Indulgence. 2012
Currency collage on museum board mounted on plywood, framed
23 ½ x 32 5/8”
(CW15 09)
Mercury Invents the Caduceus. 2015
Currency collage on museum board, framed
15 ¾ x 19 ½”
(CW15 10)
Narkissos. 2013
Currency collage on museum board mounted on wood panel, framed
81 5/8 x 37 ¾”
(CW15 11)
Installation view. 2015
The Enterprise in Going Naked. 2015
Clothing sewn on unstretched canvas
65 x 96”
(CW15 12)
Penny Drop. 2015
Pennies in plastic tube, wood support, low rpm motor, wooden gears, motion detector
25 x 27 ½ x 6 ¾” as installed
(CW15 13)
All the Pretty Horses. 2015
Bottlecaps, plastic & copper wire, maps, pennies & BBs on plastic & metal horses, vinyl mirrors, wood Chinese frame holders, right angle mirror, metal postcard, sound sensor
30 x 103 ½ x 24” as installed
(CW15 14)
Spaceman in Ford’s Theater. 2013
Gesso on museum board, framed
34 ½ x 31 7/8”
(CW15 15)
Liminal Pool #1. 2007
Oil on wood, framed
18 ¾ x 39 1/8”
(CW15 16)
Liminal Pool #3. 2013
Paper ephemera collage on museum board, mounted on panel, framed
37 3/8 x 81 ½”
(CW15 17)
Liminal Pool #2. 2013
Currency collage on museum board mounted on wood panel, framed
9 5/8 x 15 3/8”
(CW15 18)
Thanatopsis. 2014
Currency collage on museum board on panel, framed
25 7/8 x 15 3/8”
(CW15 19)
Installation view. 2015
Mercury. 2012
Ephemera collage on museum board, framed
7 ¼ x 9 ¼”
(CW15 20)
Harvester. 2014
Ephemera collage on museum board, framed
8 3/8 x 6 ½”
(CW15 21)
Cat’s Eye. 2014
Ephemera collage on museum board, framed
9 7/8 x 5 1/8”
(CW15 22)
Corazon. 2014
Ephemera collage on museum board, framed
11 7/8 x 7 ½”
(CW15 23)
Koestenbaum. 2014
Ephemera collage on museum board, framed
13 5/8 x 8 3/8”
(CW15 24)
Balance. 2014
Ephemera collage on museum board, framed
13 3/8 x 10”
(CW15 25)
Portrait of Buster Cleveland. 2013
Ephemera collage on museum board, framed
12 ¼ x 10”
(CS15 26)
Alas. 2014
Ephemera collage on museum board, framed
9 7/8 x 7 7/8”
(CW15 27)
Cooper. 2014
Ephemera collage on museum board, framed
7 3/8 x 5 5/8”
(CW15 28)
Well known for his collages and handmade books, C.K. Wilde presents his 3rd exhibition with Rosamund Felsen Gallery at the gallery’s new Downtown Los Angeles location.
Gallant in their splendor and poignant in their candor, the paintings, sculptures and collages range in subject matter from majestic horses and myths of fallen heroes to historical exploits in foreign lands. Bottlecap covered sculptures, currency rearranged into collages of Greek figures, maps layered around depictions of political leaders, a rotating antler capped bronze figure and coins providing armor on various forms all come together in the lastest exhibition titled Temper.
Echoes of tragedy, disappointment & compassion reverberate beneath the surface of these works, questioning the limitations of value and the worth of commerce. Made up of appropriated symbols of oppression, expansion, and subjugation - the ephemera, maps and currency have been meticulously & beautifully reconfigured into bold collages & sculptures that longingly express notions of freedom, journey & adventure.
Materiality, weight & texture are explored, as the deconstruction & recontextualizing of the materials grant Wilde freedom to transform symbols of power, greed, and colony into objects of cautious storytelling and critique. The discards of the past are unearthed and thus repurposed in new ways and in new contexts. Here, eruditions and explorations give way for a future based on human understanding and compassion.
C.K. Wilde has works in collections of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt; Boston Athenaeum; Houghton Art Library, Harvard University; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Minneapolis Museum of Art; Clark Library, UCLA; University of California, Santa Barbara; SFMOMA; Walker Art Center, Minnesota; and Victoria + Albert Museum Library, London. He has also exhibited internationally in Frankfurt, Beijing, London and Paris.