Tucker Nichols
STOCKHOUSE In 2012, Tucker Nichols was commissioned by SFMOMA to create a large-scale wallpaper installation for the exhibition Stage Presence. Over the Spring, both at his studio at Headlands Center For the Arts and at Gallery 16, Tucker made drawings and worked out the concepts for the commission. For Stockhouse, the exhibition at Gallery 16, he has turned the gallery into a kind of loose warehouse or workshop where the various components of the commission might have been made or stored. Bulletin boards overflowing with drawings, a fleet of painted sandwich boards that move around the space, and several large scale wall and window pieces have brought the space to life in a new way. Tucker’s project not only comments on an imagined studio practice, but also on the reality of his working relationship with Gallery 16. The wallpaper commissioned by SFMOMA is made up of 32 panels each 15 feet high and covers two 56 foot walls in the SFMOMA galleries, in addition to two giant movable walls that act as curtains for the live performances. The design and production of the piece was created and produced at Gallery 16 and Urban Digital Color. This collaboration between the artist and our printmaking staff is a symbol of how Gallery 16 straddles the line between the producing and consuming ends of the art world. The drawings and paintings that make up Stockhouse here at the gallery were created largely in response to the SFMOMA commission. Tucker began considering the unique challenges related to working with pattern: “I never thought of pattern as a subject I could sink my teeth into. I know people have ascribed great meaning to the designs of kilts and headdresses and royal tablecloths, but I’ve always seen pattern more like a veneer that goes on top of something else—it’s everywhere, but somehow it has no content. But then working on the commission for SFMOMA led me to make oversized wallpaper, which led me deep into the vast pattern wormhole. What is it? Why is it everywhere? What makes it so meaningless? All of the work in this show somehow relates to my thinking about pattern as content. Some of the drawings are from a few years back—proposals for Japanese sock designs that were never made, lines and dots for fancy underwear that was—but most of it is from the past few months. The basic idea for this show was to build a sort of makeshift design studio where the SFMOMA commission could have been conceived and produced. I like the idea of a studio that makes unworkable patterns, preposterous designs that can’t do the one thing we ask of them. Some of these patterns might work as blankets or sweaters, but most of them were too broken before they even got a chance.”
1. Untitled (gr1201), 2012 mixed media, 96” x 48” $20,000
2. Untitled (gd1203), 2012 enamel on panel, 14” x 11” 1 3/4” $1,600.00
3. Untitled (socks), 2012 pencil on paper, 82” x 11” SOLD
4. Untitled (gr1202), 2012 mixed media, 288”x 48” $40,000
5. Untitled (bu1009), 2012 gouache on cardboard, 9 3/4” x 11” $1,200
6. Untitled (mp1010), 2012 pencil on cardboard,11 3/4” x 9 1/2” $1,200
8. Untitled (gd1201), 2012 mixed media on window and wall. Inquire for pricing 7. Untitled (bu1011), 2012 gouache on paper, 11� x 9 1/2� $1,200
9. Untitled (bu1109), 2011 spray paint on panel, 8” x 10” x 2” SOLD
10. Untitled (gd1202), 2012 tape on wall Inquire for pricing
11. Untitled (pa1201), 2012 gouache on paper, 11” x 12” $1,200 12. Untitled (pa1202), 2012 gouache on paper, 9 1/2” x 18 1/2” $1300
13. Untitled (pa1203), 2012 pencil, gouache on paper, 9” x 12” $1,200
14. Untitled (mp1203), 2012 gouache on paper, 13 1/4” x 8” 1,200
15. Untitled (pa1204), 2012 gouache paper, 21” x 13” $1500
16. Untitled (pa1205), 2012 gouache and tape on paper, 11” x 16” $1500
17. Untitled (pa1206), 2012 pencil, gouache on paper, 13.5” x 11” $1200
18. Untitled (pa1207), 2012 gouache and pencil on cardboard, 11 1/2” x 9 1/2” $1200
19. Untitled (pa1208), 2012 pencil on paper, 13 1/4” x 16” $1300
20. Untitled (pa1209), 2012 gouache on paper, 9 1/2” x 12 1/2” $1300
21. Untitled (pa1210), 2012 mixed media, 13 6/8” x 8” SOLD
22. Untitled (pa1211), 2012 gouache on paper, 12 1/2” x 11” $1300
23. Untitled (pa1212), 2012 gouache on paper, 21 1/2” x 16” $1400 24. Untitled (br1213), 2012 gouache on paper, 10” x 11” $1300
26. Untitled (pa1214), 2012 gouache on paper, 13 1/2” x 7 1/2” $1200
25. Untitled (pa1213), 2012 gouache on paper, 27” x 12 3/4” $1400
27. Untitled (pa1215), 2012 gouache on paper, 20 1/2” x 16 1/2” $1,300
28. Untitled (b1214), 2012 pencil on paper, 6” x 8” $750
29. Untitled (pa1216), 2012 gouache on paper, 16” x 12 1/2” $1300
30.Untitled (bo1211) 2012 gouache on cardboard, 16 1/2” x 16” $1500
31. Untitled (pa1217), 2012 pencil on paper ,22” x 13 1/2” $1300
32. Untitled (pa1218), 2012 gouache on paper, 19 1/2” x 12 3/4” $1300
33. Untitled (br1215), 2012 pencil on cardboard, 8”x 12” $1200
34. Untitled (pa1219), 2012 gouache on paper, 14” x 11 1/2” $1300
36. Untitled (mp1110), 2011 enamel on board, 30” x 23 1/2” SOLD
“This is the first time I’ve made so many sandwich boards at once. The idea of a herd of them that move around the gallery was too appealing to ignore. I made all of the paintings for them at the same time in a giant building in the Marin Headlands that was previously a military depot of some kind. It’s a beautiful space, and now it has a chandelier and a drum kit in it. Making the paintings work as double-sided signs forces me to think about them outside the convention of painting. They have to work on the sidewalk as well as in a gallery or somebody’s home. They are still paintings and they are still signs but now they are advertising themselves.”
Untitled (sb1201) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.00
Untitled (sb1203) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1202) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.00
Untitled (sb1204) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1205) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1206) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1207) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1208) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1209) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1211) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1210) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1212) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1213) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1214) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1215) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1216) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1218) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0
Untitled (sb1219) Enamel, spray paint on masonite mounted to wood $6,500.0