Altman Siegel is pleased to present an exhibition by Garth Weiser (b. 1979, Helena, MT). Garth Weiser’s work exploits a tension created by the meeting of a hard-edged formalism and the remnants of a chaotic expressionism. This antagonistic relationship results in abstraction that is at once candid and taciturn.

For this exhibition, Weiser presents seven paintings, a primarily grey-scale series that builds from staid monochromatic works, to canvases scarred by more gestural marks. The initial austerity of the palette is disrupted by a bombastic painting, in which frenzied color works to parse the subtle operations of the surrounding works.

The paintings undergo an extended process of addition and revision in the studio. Whereas earlier works were composed around graphic motifs, Weiser’s new paintings maintain the same vibrating optical intensity, but with the effect of topographic accumulation. The sequences of painted lines pile up like strata, at once concealing and amplifying the sinewy, calligraphic marks underneath. Past the facade of a restrained palette, the abraded and scarred surfaces reveal covert flash. Weiser’s visual vocabulary variously points to Wild Style, acid house, or airbrushed psych painting. The effect is that of explosive action and lurid color buried under a scheme of precise, seismically suggestive lines, as psychic damage beneath a sober exterior.

In 2013, Garth Weiser’s work was the subject of solo exhibitions at Casey Kaplan, New York and Norma Mangione, Turin, and additionally included in Pattern: Follow the Rules at the Eli and Edythe Broad Museum at Michigan State University. Other recent exhibitions include: Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (2012), Nothing Beside Remains, curated by Shamim Momin, Los Angeles Nomadic Division (LAND), Marfa, TX (2011), Seeing is a Kind of Thinking: A Jim Nutt Companion, curated by Julie Rodrigues Widholm, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL (2011), White Flag Projects, St Louis (solo) (2010), and Big New Field: Artists in the Cowboys Stadium Art Program, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX (2010). Weiser received his MFA from Columbia University of the Arts in 2003.