Wuv is the Waw. Los Angeles-based Charles Irvin works with a wide range of media, including, video, performance, drawing and painting. For the exhibition he has produced two series of new drawings, depicting conflations of opposing concepts: birth and death, masculine and feminine, inner and outer space, organic and inorganic, the spiritual and the obscene.
Art Since the Summer of ’69 is proud to present Wuv is the Waw, Charles Irvin’s premier solo show in New York.
Los Angeles-based Irvin works with a wide range of media, including video, performance, drawing and painting. For Wuv is the Waw, Irvin has produced two series of new drawings, depicting conflations of opposing concepts: birth and death, masculine and feminine, inner and outer space, organic and inorganic, the spiritual and the obscene. The drawings depict mystical states where all is one, visualizing the alchemical concept of the union of the opposites. Carl Jung compared this to the psychological process of individuation, where the personal and collective subconscious join with consciousness. Since Irvin’s imagery is intuitive, the work depicts the process that creates it, the subconscious and conscious working together.
The drawings in the series Wuv is the Waw were inspired by a quote from Aleister Crowley; “Love is the law, love under will”. The drawings seek to represent the fun, light-hearted, and perhaps even cute and cuddly side of the complex, multifaceted Crowley. In tribute to Crowley’s meditations on the multivalence of symbols, the drawings contain an image that evokes light and dark sides of our contemporary visual culture. Crowley loved riddles, so Irvin refuses to reveal what these sides are.
Charles Irvin’s work was recently included in exhibitions at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, White Columns in New York and the Museum of Modern Art in Luxembourg. He is a member in the artist’s collective/men’s group Dude Dogg.
Image: Nude Descending a Staircase, 2010. Courtesy of Art Since The Summer Of '69
Opening reception on Sunday January 17th, 4 - 7 p.m.
Art Since the Summer of ’69
195 Chrystie Street (Between Stanton and Rivington) #303, 3rd floor New York, NY 10002
Opening Hours
Thursday through Sunday, 1-6 p.m.