De Wain Valentine's first New York survey in 30 years opens at David Zwirner

'I just want to say one word to you. Just one word… plastics.' Nearly 50 years later, the 'great future in plastics' promised to a rudderless Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate is finally here, in the form of De Wain Valentine's otherworldly yet organic works in polyester resin, on view until 7 August at David Zwirner gallery in New York.
'This is all about pieces of the sky and pieces of the ocean,' says Valentine, 78, surveying the exhibition of luminous, meticulously polished forms he cast in the 1960s and 1970s, after arriving in Los Angeles from his native Colorado, where schoolkids and their shop (industrial arts) teachers got the synthetic spoils of polymers developed for military use. 'Polyester resin allowed me to objectify the atmosphere – put it out in solid form, look at it, and say "This is what this is".'
The show's 21 works, spread across four rooms and the hallway that connects Zwirner's high-ceilinged, expansive white spaces on West 19th Street, include 'double pyramids' that resemble huge, cloudy gemstones and chunky, beveled rings that look popped from the tops of giant bottles (especially the one in beach-glassy blueish grey), but Valentine's atmospheric inspiration is most apparent – and affecting – in his circles. Balanced jauntily on their slender, convex edges, these translucent discs are monumental punch samplings of water and sky, alive with traces of sand, sun, and hazy LA smog.
For many years, Valentine kept a second studio in Hawaii, and Circle Blue Smoke Flow, 1970, a sheer cyan disc crowned by an earthy smudge, preserves in resin a fragment of Waialea Bay. 'You look straight down at that crystal blue water, at the white sand on the bottom, and see the dappling of sand,' explains Valentine. 'I was able to recreate a piece of that and stand it on the edge.'
The artist's eye for proportion comes into view with his columns: extruded prisms that grow from the circles. These slender sculptures stretch upward in dialogue with the human form and, in the smoky greys Valentine favoured in the mid-1970s, call attention to their sleek surfaces, polished to a high gleam through a sequence of sandpaper grits that can remove thousands of pounds worth of resin. 'You never really see them until the last polish,' he notes.
'De Wain ended up in California at a moment when many artists were looking at alternative ways of making sculpture and installations, and his expertise innovated not only within contemporary art but touched many artistic careers around him,' says Kristine Bell, who organised the exhibition, the first New York survey of Valentine's work in 30 years. 'It's a story that needs to be retold here – and it’s long overdue.'
The exhibition features the polyester resin pieces Valentine cast in the 1960s and 1970s, after arriving in Los Angeles from his native Colorado. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
'Polyester resin allowed me to objectify the atmosphere – put it out in solid form, look at it, and say "This is what this is"'. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Valentine's 'double pyramid' piece resembles huge, cloudy gemstones. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Valentine's atmospheric inspiration is most apparent in his circles. Balanced jauntily on their slender, convex edges, these translucent discs are monumental punch samplings of water and sky, alive with traces of sand, sun, and hazy LA smog. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Circle Blue Smoke Flow, 1970 – pictured to the rear – is a sheer cyan disc crowned by an earthy smudge, preserving in resin a fragment of Waialea Bay in Hawaii. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The artist's eye for proportion comes into view with his columns: extruded prisms that grow from the circles. These slender sculptures stretch upward in dialogue with the human form. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
'It's a story that needs to be retold here – and it's long overdue,' says exhibition organiser Kristine Bell. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The exhibition will be on show at Zwirner's West 19th Street space until 7 August. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
ADDRESS
David Zwirner
519, 525 & 533 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Stephanie Murg is a writer and editor based in New York who has contributed to Wallpaper* since 2011. She is the co-author of Pradasphere (Abrams Books), and her writing about art, architecture, and other forms of material culture has also appeared in publications such as Flash Art, ARTnews, Vogue Italia, Smithsonian, Metropolis, and The Architect’s Newspaper. A graduate of Harvard, Stephanie has lectured on the history of art and design at institutions including New York’s School of Visual Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.
-
Bees can now check in at Kew’s new pollinator hotel
At Wakehurst, Kew’s wild botanic garden, artist Kristina Pulejkova unveils four functional sculptures that tell the hidden story of seeds and act as a refuge for bees during the heat of summer
-
Andu Masebo and The Singleton’s bespoke furniture celebrates the beauty in slow craft
British designer Andu Masebo collaborates with single malt Scotch whisky The Singleton on a multifunctional furniture piece boasting minimal design codes
-
Inside a midcentury modern house so good, its architect didn’t want to mess with it
‘I was immediately a little bit frightened, because it was such a great house,’ says architect Casper Mork-Ulnes of Roger Lee-designed gem in Berkeley, California
-
‘Her pictures looked like pictures everybody knew were the truth’: Diane Arbus at the Armory
Matthieu Humery curates more than 400 of Arbus’ photographs at New York’s Park Avenue Armory – every picture she was known to have printed
-
Mystic, feminine and erotic: the power of Penny Slinger’s bodies as landscape
Artist Penny Slinger continues her exploration of the sacred, surreal feminine in a Santa Monica exhibition, ‘Meeting at the Horizon’
-
Out of office: the Wallpaper* editors’ picks of the week
It was a jam-packed week for the Wallpaper* staff, entailing furniture, tech and music launches and lots of good food – from afternoon tea to omakase
-
Out of office: what the Wallpaper* editors have been up to this week
This week saw the Wallpaper* team jet-setting to Jordan and New York; those of us left in London had to make do with being transported via the power of music at rooftop bars, live sets and hologram performances
-
Photographer Geordie Wood takes a leap of faith with first film, Divers
Geordie Wood delved into the world of professional diving in Fort Lauderdale for his first film
-
New book celebrates 100 years of New York City landmarks where LGBTQ+ history took place
Marc Zinaman’s ‘Queer Happened Here: 100 Years of NYC’s Landmark LGBTQ+ Places’ is a vital tribute to queer culture
-
A major Takashi Murakami exhibition sees the world in kaleidoscopic colour
The Cleveland Art Museum presents 'Takashi Murakami 'Stepping on the Tail of a Rainbow', exploring outrage and escapist fantasy
-
Ai Weiwei’s new public installation is coming soon to Four Freedoms State Park
‘Camouflage’ by Ai Weiwei will launch the inaugural Art X Freedom project in September 2025, a new programme to investigate social justice and freedom