Anthony Warnick, “We Wept (After Bas Jan Ader),” 2016, HD video. Courtesy of artist.
$162,510,000
2018
Prisoner Produced Offset Prints
Anthony Warnick, “The Artist Breath On the Face of the Water,” 2014, ice, breath, time. Courtesy of the artist.
a Window to Sculpture Emerging Artist Series 2018 Exhibition
Anthony Warnick: Language Games
March 9 – April 13, 2018
Euclid Avenue Gallery
Dual opening reception Friday, March 9 5:30 – 8:00 P.M with Jonas Sebura: Confounded into Unitary Chaos
The Artist Talks: Anthony Warnick, 6:15 p.m. in the Euclid Avenue Gallery
The Artist Talks: Jonas Sebura, 7 p.m. in the Main Gallery
Exhibition review by Joseph Clark for CAN Journal.
Anthony Warnick’s exhibition of new work, Language Games, makes reference to philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s idea of language as a game. One of Wittgenstein’s primary arguments is that concepts which exist outside the framework of the game do not need to be defined to be meaningful. In fact, semantic discussions that try to define those concepts can distract from the actual discovery of a solution. Thus, Warnick’s exhibition examines how language, an indispensable facet of civil society, also functions as an imposing obstructive force. The words we use to understand and identify ourselves play a crucial role in how we relate ourselves to others, with profound results. One such result is the for-profit prison industry; where semantic selfishness, i.e. the “us” and “them” mentality that has become ingrained in our unconscious thoughts, has created what is essentially a societally enabled slave complex. Weaving an artistic experience from action, object, and word, the viewer is forced to reexamine the tangible impact that words have on the world.
The printed matter in Language Games was commissioned by the artist from the Pickaway Correctional Institution in Orient, Ohio. The pillows are also prisoner made at Allen-Oakwood Correctional Institution. Orders with Ohio Penal Industries can be placed on their website.
Anthony Warnick earned his BFA in Web and Multimedia Environments from Minneapolis College of Art and Design (2011) and his MFA in Sculpture from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2015), and he is currently a full-time lecturer in Sculpture and Expanded Media at the Cleveland Institute of Art and an artist-in-residence at Oberlin College for spring 2018. Anthony Warnick and Kelley O’Brien (a W2S 2019 artist) are Co-Director/Co-Curator of The Muted Horn, a non-institutional project space on the near west side of Cleveland that shows one-person exhibitions by regional and national artists to promote experimental modes of practice.
See Anthony Warnick’s CV here.
Anthony’s website can be found here.
Anthony’s exhibition checklist can be found here.
Photos by Jacob Keostler
