2019 Catalogue Archive

Charles Mayton’s practice is centered on the ever-evolving concept of painting about painting. His work incorporates imagery, ideas, and strategies from the past to question the current state of painting, and thereby the painter. Eyeballs are a common motif, which embeds the act of looking (or being looked at) as a self-referential subject in the work, seen here in Light Museum. The piece appears to depict a row of postcards of mostly AbEx works of art – paintings of reproductions of paintings – in a work that holds up a mirror to the ubiquity of (and anxiety surrounding) the artist’s chosen discipline. Mayton’s work was included in the seminal 2013 exhibition Painter at the Walker Art Center, as well as being included in solo and group shows in the US and Europe.