JAMES WELLING (b. 1951),

'New Abstraction #59 (Red Stripe)', 2010

SIGNED Limited Edition Silk Rug

James Welling's rugs are based on his "New Abstractions" a series of "photographs" that are cameraless-photographs (photograms) created in the darkroom with an enlarger, photopaper and handful of cardboard rectangular shapes. The New Abstractions have been shown frequently in museums and galleries all over the world including the Sprengel Museum in Hannover, Germany, Regen Projects in Los Angeles and David Zwirner Gallery in New York. Hand dyed silk; Wool and silk ply. 100 knots per inch. Dimensions: 72" x 57" (183 x 145 cm), Edition Size: 15 (+ 4 AP's). SIGNED and numbered by artist on label. Published by BravinLee Programs, New York, NY. Excellent new condition with no visible defects.

When an artist's work comes off the wall and onto the floor, it's experienced in an entirely new way. BravinLee programs produces limited edition rugs by some of the most compelling contemporary artists, including James Welling. BravinLee programs works intimately with artists to translate their visual vocabulary and palette into rich textiles. Made of wool and silk, the rugs are hand-knotted by highly-skilled artisans in Nepal. All carpets are made with the traditional cross-weaving technique, a Tibetan method which produces highly durable rugs.

James Welling was one of the first artists BravinLee approached when they embarked on publishing rug editions. Welling has long embarked on a variety of formats and they thought he just may be open to a new one. Not only was he open, he was eager to see his work in a place not seen before -- under his feet in the living room. Having worked together many times previously, the trust was there. And they moved ahead.

James Welling has said that his 'New Abstractions' were influenced by modern composers, such as John Cage and Stockhausen: 'What I was really thinking about in them was musicians' scores... I wanted to imagine these pictures as chords.' For these photographs, Welling began by arranging strips of cards on photographic paper to produce photograms. He then scanned these images into a computer to flip them around, before finally making digital negatives from Photoshop files. These negatives were used to produce the final contact prints - which were made by laying the large negatives directly onto photographic paper.

Part artist, part mad scientist, James Welling pushes the limits of photography. Self-trained and fueled by curiosity, there doesn't seem to be a photographic process or tool he has yet to attempt. His abstractions are rendered as photograms, traditional gelatin silver prints, Polaroids, and digitally processed prints. He uses shutterless, digital, and vintage view cameras to create his images; in some cases he removes the camera altogether and works directly on film. Despite his wide range of methods, we can see one common thread in all of his works: light.

His exhaustive research into the concept of light can be seen in the various projects that he painstakingly and continuously tackles. He explores light as a tool needed to make a photograph in his photograms, such as his Flowers series. He plays with how light envelops and highlights a subject or object by photographing plants, drapery, and other found objects. Most recently, his obsession with light has led him to the exploration of color, as can been seen in his images in the 2006–2009 Glass House series.

SELECT RECENT SOLO EXHIBITIONS:

2024
'Witnesses: James Welling / Chris Welsby', University Galleries, Illinois State University, Normal, IL (3/1 - 3/31)
'James Welling: Thought Objects', David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY

2022
'Dark Matter: Thomas Ruff, James Welling', Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
'James Welling: Iconographia', Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA

2021
'James Welling: Cento', Musée des Arts Contemporains Grand-Hornu (MACS), Hornu, Belgium
'James Welling: Metamorphosis', David Zwirner Gallery, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

2020
'James Welling: Choreograph', George Eastman Museum, Rochester, NY
'James Welling: Archaeology', Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA
'James Welling: Seascape', Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME
'James Welling: The Earth, the Temple and the Gods', Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris, France

2019
'James Welling: Planograph', Maureen Paley Gallery, London, UK
'Fiction and Fabrication: Photography of Architecture After the Digital Turn' (group exhibition), Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), Lisbon, Portugal
'Seascape by James Welling', Ogunquit Museum of American Art, Ogunquit, ME
'James Welling: Transform', David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY

2018
'James Welling: Choreograph', Galería Marta Cervera, Madrid, Spain

2017
'James Welling: New Work', Wako Works of Art, Tokyo, Japan
'James Welling: Seascape', David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY
'James Welling: Metamorph', Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna, Austria
'James Welling: Metamorphosis', Kunstforum Wien, Vienna, Austria
'James Welling: Metamorphosis', S.M.A.K., Ghent, Belgium
'James Welling: Choreograph', Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris, France

2016
'James Welling: Calligraphy', WUHO Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
'James Welling: Choreograph', Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA
'James Welling: Choreograph', Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA

2015
'James Welling: Choreograph', David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY
'Things Beyond Resemblance: James Welling Photographs', Brandywine River Museum of Art, Chadds Ford, PA

2014
'James Welling: Diary of Elizabeth and James Dixon, 1840–41 / Connecticut Landscapes, 1977–86', Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

2013
'James Welling: The Mind on Fire', Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
'James Welling: Autograph', Fotomuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
'James Welling: Monograph', Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
'James Welling: The Mind on Fire', Centro Galego de Arte Contemporànea, Santiago de Compostela, Spain 
'James Welling: Monograph', Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH 
'James Welling: Place' University Museum of Contemporary Art, UMASS Amherst, Amherst, MA

2012
'This Will Have Been: Art, Love & Politics in the 1980s' (group exhibition), Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston, MA
'James Welling: The Mind on Fire', MK Gallery, Milton Keyes, UK 
'James Welling: Overflow', David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY
'James Welling', Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL 
'James Welling: Wyeth', Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT 
'James Welling: Geometric Abstraction', Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA
'James Welling: Wyeth', Wako Works of Art, Tokyo, Japan

2011
'James Welling', Galería Marta Cervera, Madrid, Spain 
'James Welling: Glass House', The Four Seasons Restaurant Lobby Gallery, New York, NY
'James Welling', Maureen Paley Gallery, London, UK

2010
'New Pictures 3: James Welling: Glass House', Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN
'Contemporary Works from the Monsen Family Collection' (group exhibition), Henry Art Gallery, University of Washington, Seatle, WA
'James Welling', Wako Works of Art, Tokyo, Japan 
'Stairway to Heaven: Paul McMahon, Matt Mullican, James Welling, 1970-1976', Susan Inglett Gallery, New York, NY
'Outside the Box: Edition Jacob Samuel, 1988 - 2010' (group exhibition), Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
'James Welling: Glass House', David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY 
'How Many Billboards? Art In Stead' (group exhibition), MAK Center for Art and Architecture at the Schindler House, West Hollywood, CA 
'James Welling: Glass House', Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA

2009
'James Welling: Hapax Legomania', Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
'The Pictures Generation, 1974–1984' (group exhibition), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
'The Garden at 4AM' (group exhibition), Gana Art, New York, NY 
'James Welling: Notes on Color', Wako Works of Art, Tokyo, Japan 
'James Welling', Galerie Nelson-Freeman, Paris, France

2008
'Implant Redux' (group exhibition), The Horticultural Society of New York (HSNY), NY 
'James Welling', Galerie Nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna, Austria
'Implant' (group exhibition), The UBS Art Gallery, New York, NY
'Photography on Photography: Reflections on the Medium since 1960' (group exhibition), Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
'James Welling: Works 1980 - 2008', David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY
'2008 Whitney Biennial' (group exhibition), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
'James Welling', Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA
'First Floor' (group exhibition), Flo Peters Gallery, Hamburg, Germany

2007
'Concrete Works' (group exhibition), Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY
'James Welling', Maureen Paley Gallery, London, UK
'James Welling: Flowers, 2005', The Horticultural Society of New York, NY
'James Welling: Flowers, Hexachromes, and Authors', David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY

2006
'The 80s: A Topology' (group exhibition), Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal
'Double Exposure' (group exhibition), Center for Contemporary Non-Objective Art (CCNOA), Brussels, Belgium
'James Welling', Galerie Nelson, Paris, France
'James Welling', Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL
'James Welling', Galerie Xavier Hufkens, Brussels, Belgium
'James Welling: New Photographs', Wako Works of Art, Tokyo, Japan
'Agricultural Works: Photographs by James Welling', Hudson River Museum, Yonkers, NY

2005
'James Welling: New Work', David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY
'James Welling', Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA

2004
'James Welling: New Photographs', Wako Works of Art, Tokyo, Japan
'James Welling: Agrigultural Works', Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, SUNY, New Paltz, NY

2003
'James Welling', Galerie Nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna, Austria
'James Welling: Los Angeles Photographs', Gorney Bravin + Lee Gallery, NY
‘James Welling: Recent Photographs’, Wako Works of Art, Tokyo, Japan
'James Welling', Regen Projects, Los Angeles, CA 
'James Welling', Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan, Italy

2002
'James Welling: Abstract', Art Gallery of York University, Toronto, Canada
'James Welling: Abstract', Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, Belgium
'James Welling', Galerie Nelson, Paris, France
'James Welling: Abstract', Donald Young Gallery, Chicago, IL

2001
‘James Welling: 1974-1999’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA

2000
‘James Welling: 1974-1999’, Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
‘James Welling: 1974-1999’, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH

PERMANENT COLLECTIONS

Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada
Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, OH
City Collection, Geneva, N
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX
Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Fondation Belgacom, Brussels Fonds National d'Art Contemporain (FNAC), Paris, France
Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Bourgogne, Dijon, France
Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain de Bretagne, Châteaugiron, France
Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain de Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France
Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain de Franche-Comté, Besançon, France
Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Nord Pas-de-Calais, Dunkerque, France
Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Pays de la Loire, Carquefou, France
Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Jane Voorhees Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
KPN Collection, The Netherlands
Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany
Linda Pace Foundation, San Antonio, TX
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI
Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Lyon
Musée départemental d'art contemporain de Rochechouart, Rochechouart, France
Musée de La Roche-sur-Yon, Roche-sur-Yon, France
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, IL
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Museum Moderner Kunst, Vienna, Austria
National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, Norway
Olympic Collection, Oslo, Norway
Sammlung Goetz, Munich, Germany
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan
Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, CT
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Yale University Museum of Art, New Haven, CT

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