Rough and ready iconography including skulls, flags and motorcycle culture meets classical pencil drawings of flowers and pinup girls in this series of works by Wes Lang. The New Jersey-born, Brooklyn-based creative has collected his 10-year oeuvre in a new monograph, Wes Lang, published by Picturebox Books. Featuring such references as Ernest Hemingway, Jean-Michel Basquiat and the Grim Reaper, the book provides a fittingly disparate portrait of America. Through his decade-long career, Lang has taken up residency at LA’s storied Chateau Marmont, and found his niche within pop and fashion with commissions from Kanye West, Playboy and Marc Jacobs. A self-described collector of “weird imagery”, Lang spent time working in a tattoo parlor after high school, and has since covered himself in dizzying renderings of American Indians, crosses and raindrops.
The artists Donald Baechler and Wes Lang have maintained a dialogue for many years built on mutual curiosity, respect and even mild competition. The contrast in their work is apparent, but their individual meditations on a single image—the skull—provides a bridge between two distinct minds separated by a generation.
Please update your browser to access Creative Exchange Agency.