IN REVIEW
ERIC WESLEY/ST. LOUIS THE BELL, BORTOLAMI GALLERY
Off a long, flat stretch of Camp Jackson Rd. is the abandoned Taco Bell building that houses Eric Wesley’s year long exhibition under the title of Eric Wesley/St. Louis. Wesley is a Los Angeles-based artist with an international portfolio, the latest of which is his show through the Artist/City series, set in a Taco Bell-turned-gallery space. The inaugural exhibition of Eric Wesley/ St. Louis opened May 21st with five new paintings from the artist. Wesley riffs off of Renaissance tondo paintings for his five new pieces. Traditional tondo paintings often
feature Renaissance figures huddled together within a circular frame several feet in diameter. Wesley repurposes this form as variations on a cross section of a burrito in his new pieces. One, Burrito Painting #4 (Sesos), looks vaguely like brain matter; one half green and one half red mirrors meat and lettuce in a burrito. Another, Burrito Painting #3, is a red and grey mix, almost metallic, with two lonely halves of a green pea and three bits of chopped red onion floating in the void. Burrito Painting #1 (Early Bite) is maybe the least burrito-ish, with multi-colored splatters of paint across a grey background. A black and white section in the
middle of the painting resembles a line drawing of bits of burrito ingredients like beans, or chopped vegetables. The inaugural exhibit also functions as an introduction to the space, which is an integral part of the exhibit, and arguably the most interesting. The exterior of the building features signature Taco Bell structure, “replete with ersatz Spanish Colonial architecture.” From the outside, the gallery looks just like a Taco Bell situated at the front of a huge, nearly-empty parking lot, neighbored by a Dollar Tree and Subway. Once inside, the space feels like any gallery. Wesley re-did the interior so that half of the building is a workspace while the front end is a small, white-walled room with smooth wood flooring where the paintings hang. I had admittedly hoped that the interior would still contain the typical Taco Bell layout and furniture. I would have loved to see Wesley’s burrito tondos nestled between purple plastic benches and a soda machine. The setting of this yearlong project is my favorite part of it: a gallery inside of a Taco Bell building in a parking lot off of a four-lane freeway. The Bortolami Gallery created the Artist/City series to provide “a new, experimental alternative for artists to show their work in American cities outside the standard five-week gallery show.” In the location of Wesley’s show, they have succeeded in that goal. Eric Wesley/ St. Louis is not only outside of the typical structural setting of an art show in a gallery or museum, but also outside of the typical geographical space of a St. Louis show. St. Louis galleries tend to be clustered in Grand Center, the Central West End,
Eric Wesley, Burrito Painting #5 (Con Rábano) (photo credit: Richard Reilly)
Eric Wesley, Burrito Painting #4 (Sesos) (photo credit: Richard Reilly) 01 ALLTHEARTSTL.COM FALL 2016
IN REVIEW