Portrait / Palm

Andro Wekua

Submitted by Sprüth Magers. Andro Wekua’s exhibitions often suggest non-linear narratives, conjuring a range of ideas about memory and architecture with paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media installations. His collages of family photographs and coastal views from Sukhumi—the now derelict seaside resort where he grew up—are transformed by paintwork, annotations, and magazine excerpts referencing mainstream culture. This suspension of narrative, and the juxtaposition of varying temporal registers to create dialogues among the various artworks in a show, emphasizes how memories inflect our dreams, and the elusive nature of the past. Wekua’s work maps psychological landscapes in which word and image drift in and out of consciousness. His installations often feature mannequins that are wax-cast from live models and reproduced in silicone to appear both lifelike and artificial. The mannequins form part of architectural tableaux alongside collages and painting. The device from which the figure hangs suggests a playground swing, yet he or she hangs in a physically impossible position. Wekua poses questions about interior and exterior, private and public space, performance and imprisonment, reveling in an ambiguity that serves to provoke the viewer’s imagination.