BE THEREUnder Your Wet BlanketPresented by Cueto Project January 17, 2008- February 16, 2008Reception: January 17, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmFritz Welch‘The song is long and contains the ‘slow burn’ needed to get its point across. But now Activism is drunk and falling down the stairs and Paranoia sits on the side of the road wearing dirty jeans waiting for the bus’ FW Cueto Project is pleased to present the work of New York artist Fritz Welch. This is his first solo show with the gallery in it's new Chelsea location. This exhibition will feature recent drawings, paintings, sculptures and large-scale installations. Under Your Wet Blanket deals with two ongoing conceptual themes for the artist: Revolution Blues and Vampire Blues. The former refers to a fundamental interest in activist occupation of space and direct political action. The latter is concerned with global dysfunction and ecological disaster. The concept of the show originates in a series of drawings inspired by an early visual memory. Real or imagined, a photograph of Native American activists sitting on a bulldozer with rifles in hand led to a chain reaction opening interlocking cyphers in the artist's imagination. The impending references have come to include the prophetic writings of Philip K. Dick, the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz,The Night of the Living Dead, Viktor Rogy’s final film Suffering Is The Fastest Horse, Paolo Ucello's Battle of San Romano, Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading and a continually growing collection. His work addresses the formal relationship between a diversity of objects, images and materials, as well as the occult potential of the seemingly disconnected ideas contained in their hybridized combinations. In short, Welch’s approach includes an ever-mutating investigation into the origins of his 'Anarchist Soul Junk'. Welch's work has been featured internationally in exhibitions at Transmission Glasgow, Kunsthalle Exnergasse Vienna, Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam, The Sculpture Center, Long Island City, The Drawing Center NYC, among others. His next exhibition scheduled for March 2008 at Trace Gallery in Cardiff Wales will feature wall drawings and performance. The exhibition will feature a special installation in the pool.
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