AUTODESIRE as a kind of theoretical graphic novel.
AUTODESIRE currently numbers at 280 single works in 14 Chapters with a 15th Chapter due in 2024.
Each AUTODESIRE book is small diptych image made from Japanese paints and pigment rich Swiss crayons, finished in archival resin. This drawing is housed inside of a bone-white wooden book sculpture with hand printed black lettering. Each wooden book is hand-bound and folds to close shut to be held in the hands and opens flat to be hung on a wall. This form of the book is taken from the early modern Christian devotional paintings that had wooden doors; this design is meant to produce an intimate object.
The drawings collectively work together as a new manifesto on a darker, more erotic iteration of figural abstraction. AUTODESIRE is mixing biography; narrative and theory as a way to use drawing to engage a practice of Auto-theory. AUTODESIRE builds image with this process to capture the anxious desire inside of the psychology of a pandemic world with the act of drawing.
The drawings of AUTODESIRE tell the story of a heroine’s journey through a road trip inferno; her story is being told through an algorithm that is extracting encrypted memories and generating abstractions through the process of recall. The fragment narratives that come in and out of resolution through a formal process of layering; transmute both real and imagined, stolen and autobiographical ideas and stories into a kind of omnivorous feast that entangles human, animal, and landscape.
AUTODESIRE is the multiplicity of self as voiced by the alien femme in the bacchanal at the end of the world. Figure submits to abstraction; forms and images build up, continually refuse to settle and instead embrace multiplicity, alien sexuality and Dionysian logic. AUTODESIRE tells a story without denouement or resolution: only a further drive into chaos, beauty, and ennui.
This project was inspired directly by artists who produced large series of drawings in anxious times such as Louise Bourgeoise’s Insomnia Drawings; Zak Smith’s Illustrated Gravity’s Rainbow, Otto Dix’s Der Krieg; Carol Rama’s figure drawings.
Works from Chapter 10, 12, and 13 are represented by Simóndi in Turin, Italy.
Works from Chapter 1, 2, 3, and 5 are represented by Western Exhibitions in Chicago, IL.
Works from Chapter 6,7,8,and 14 are currently in curatorial projects.
Museum Collections:
Chapter 9: Grift X of the AUTODESIRE project; 27 small paintings are part of the permanent collection of the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Italy.
Exhibition History and Press:
March to May 2023: “The Vagabond and The Lovers”, Societe Interludio Gallery, Turin Italy. A solo exhibition of Chapter 12 and 13 of AUTODESIRE and a new series of large scale oil on canvas works.
April 2023: Western Exhibitions booths at Expo Chicago Art Fair. This is a group booth featuring the work of Lauren Wy, Deb Sokolow, Lilli Carre, Julia Schmitt Healy and Aya Nakamura.
February 2023: “Excuse the Interruption”, Over the Influence, Los Angeles, California. A group exhibition featuring the work of Zes, Jean Nagai, Brittney Fanning and Lauren Wy.
November 2022: “Oltre Ottico Orizzonte, Oltre Orrido Orte”, Musei Reali, Turin Italy. A two person show at the Musei Reali in Turin Italy, This show pairs Chapter 12 of AUTODESIRE show with drawings by Carol Rama; curated by Federica Giallombardo
October 2022: Art Verona, a fair in Verona Italy. AUTODESIRE works shown with Societe Interludio.
April 2022 to February 2023: AUTODESIRE Chapter 9: Grift X, as part of the group exhibition Espressioni con Frazioni at the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Italy. This is a large curatorial project by the director of Castello di Rivoli Carolyn Cristov-Bakargiev and curator Marcella Beccaria.
December 2021: New Art Dealers Fair or NADA at Miami Art Basel weekend. Western Exhibitions booth, Miami Beach , FL
September 2021: AUTODESIRE Volume 1, a solo presentation at Western Exhibitions, in Chicago IL
January 2021: The Drawing Biennial, Western Exhibitions, Chicago IL featuring a chapter 2 form the work AUTODESIRE.
Press: