Buster Graybill
Informalism
Street Gallery, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art [link]
May 25 – September 8, 2018
Informalism presents an informed aesthetic of a rural American vernacular embracing high-brow aesthetics through populist materials and actions. Grounded by the Lawn Chair Strapping paintings, a further look reveals requisite playfulness of a sculpture created from brightly colored arrows buried deep into a dense foam mass. Calmly posed clay trap thrower becomes a mischievous drawing implement leaving random marks on a canvas and broken pigeons across the floor. An exhaust system becomes an abstracted form referencing truck culture. With this contextualization, Graybill transcends sentimentality, proffering honest visual references to working-class objects mediated through theories of Minimalism and Pop Art.
~ Jake Weigel
images courtesy of Teri Mumm at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art