Jerry West : The Vernacular Sublime

Pie Projects is thrilled to present Jerry West: The Vernacular Sublime. Highlighted in the exhibition are West's recent paintings, a selection of iconic paintings spanning over 50 years, as well as woodcut and copper plate etching prints. The exhibition will be on view until August 26, 2023

“Together Jerry West’s paintings constitute a bestiary, a regional atlas, a natural history, an autobiography, a dream journal, and maybe an alchemical treatise, all written in images that we can read but only partially, and none reads alike,” Rebecca Solnit writes in an essay included in the 2015 monograph Jerry West: The Alchemy of Memory (Museum of New Mexico Press).

West's visual narratives personify the changes that occurred in New Mexico between the Great Depression and the Great Recession. As he just turned 90, West continues to produce a wide-ranging oeuvre combining his love of Santa Fe and the surrounding mountains, the prairie worlds, and all the events and people that passed through his life and imprinted his dreams and psyche.