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Past Exhibitions: 2009UMMA Projects: Walead BeshtyReopening (March 28) through June 14, 2009 Working across a range of media, London-born, Los Angeles-based artist Walead Beshty has consistently explored the boundaries between politics and aesthetics, consumption and critique. In his most recent work, Beshty has undertaken a meticulous investigation into the conditions and processes of artistic production. His monumentally-scaled photograms, created by folding large sheets of unexposed photo paper into three-dimensional forms and exposing them to variously-colored lights, produce geometric fields in which areas of sumptuous color are interwoven with passages of intense luminosity. In a related series of sculptures—comprised of shatterproof glass boxes sized to the volume of the FedEx shipping boxes in which they are transported (and which double as pedestals)—Beshty extends his inquiry beyond physical materials and technical processes to include the means by which artworks exist, circulate, and accrue value after they leave the studio. In addition to the challenge they pose to normative ideas about conservation and value, Beshty's boxes also ask us to rethink our notion of what an individual work “looks” like, as their appearance changes with each showing. This project is made possible in part by the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation. 
Walead Beshty 
FedEx® Large Kraft Box ©2005 FEDEX 330508, International Priority, Los Angeles-Tijuana trk# 865282058000 October 28-30, 2008, International Priority, Tijuana-Los Angeles trk# 867279774907 January 2-6, 2009 
Six Color Loop (CMYRGB: Irvine, California, July 16th 2008, Fuji Crystal Archive Type C) 
Six Color Loop (CMYRGB: Irvine, California, July 26th 2008, Fuji Crystal Archive Type C) 
Installation view: UMMA Projects: Walead Beshty, University of Michigan Museum of Art 
Installation view: UMMA Projects: Walead Beshty, University of Michigan Museum of Art 
Walead Beshty 
Walead Beshty 
Walead Beshty |