David Zwirner announces representation of Walter Price, his work to be exhibited as part of gallery's 30th anniversary exhibition

WALTER PRICE, “Sea racing”, 2020-2021. | © Walter Price, courtesy of the artist

THE GRAND OPENING of David Zwirner’s new Los Angeles location coincides with the gallery’s 30th anniversary. The gallery is marking this milestone with an anniversary exhibition opening on May 23. The exhibition features the works of everyone on its list, more than 80 artists and fields. New and historic works will be featured by artists who have worked with the New York-based gallery since its founding in 1993, including Canadian artist Stan Douglas, and the latest to join the gallery. Walter Price (born in 1989).

David Zwirner announced his representation of Price today. The representation is in collaboration with Greene Naftali in New York, the artist’s existing gallery. The award will be included in “David Zwirner: 30 Years” later this month, and his first solo exhibition with the will be presented in November in Los Angeles. This summer, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, will host a solo exhibition by Price. “Walter Price: Pearl Lines” is the most comprehensive museum presentation of his work to date.

Price works at the intersection of figuration and abstraction. Defined by rich, alluring colors, his images evoke race, history and sociocultural awareness. Describing his work, David Zwirner Gallery said that Price “sensitively employs a language of recurring patterns that cross the real world and the world of dreams, memory and collective history: children’s faces in three-quarter view, cars, furniture, animals and partially returned objects. stars slip in and out of his layered painterly landscapes and are juxtaposed with areas of bright, contrasting color, textured brushstrokes, enigmatic inscriptions and wandering lines.

“His work, which exudes mystery, playfulness and careful attention to process and color, sets him apart among the emerging painters of his generation.” —David Zwirner

Walter Prize, 2024. | Photo by Walter Price, courtesy of David Zwirner

BORN IN MACON, Georgia, Price lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. After serving four years in the U.S. Navy, he used the GI Bill to attend the Art Institute of Washington in Arlington, Virginia, where he earned a bachelor’s degree. Price’s work has been exhibited internationally and is represented in the collections of major institutions. His 2023 painting, “Races on the Sea,” is currently on view in “Objects of Desire,” the collection exhibition (1980s to present) at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Price was featured at the Whitney Biennial in 2019. Solo exhibitions of his work have been presented at MoMA PS1 in Long Island City, New York (2018); Kölnischer Kunstverein in Cologne, Germany (“Walter Price: Pearl Lines,” 2018); Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, Colorado (“Walter Price: We Passed Like Ships in the Night,” 2019); and the Camden Art Center in London (“Walter Price: Pearl Lines”, 2021). Price titles almost all of his solo exhibitions Pearl Lines in an effort to emphasize the connections and continuity between his works, many of which are produced in ongoing series.

With multiple locations in New York, spaces in London, Paris and Hong Kong, and its latest outpost set to open in Los Angeles, David Zwirner is one of the largest galleries in the world. He represents dozens of prominent artists, including several black artists. Douglas has been with the gallery since the beginning. Chris Ofili joined in 2005. Kerry James Marshall, Michael Armitage, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Oscar Murillo, Raymond Saunders, Portia Zvavahera and the estates of Noah Davis and Roy DeCarava are among the artists who began working with the gallery in over the last decade. .

Zwirner said he first heard of Price through critic and curator Hilton Als. “I was first introduced to Walter Price’s work through Hilton Als in 2022 when he included it in the ‘Toni Morrison’s Black Book’ exhibition here at the gallery. I was immediately struck by Price’s utterly assured and complex compositions,” Zwirner said in a statement.

“His work, which exudes mystery, playfulness and careful attention to process and color, sets him apart among the emerging painters of his generation. I am thrilled to be working with him and very much look forward to seeing his painting in conversation with the works of other artists in the gallery at our anniversary exhibition in Los Angeles later this month. CT

The works of Walter Price featured on this page were included in “Toni Morrison’s Black Book” (January 20-February 26, 2022), a group exhibition organized by Hilton Als at David Zwirner in New York.

FIND MORE about 52 Walker, the David Zwirner location in Tribeca designed and directed by Senior Director Ebony L. Haynes, with a focus on conceptual and research-based artists from diverse backgrounds, especially Black artists.

WALTER PRICE, “Follow the flame”, 2021 (arylic, gesso, Flashe and collage on wood panel, 10 x 8 3/8 inches / 25.4 x 21.3 cm). | © Walter Price, courtesy of the artist

Installation view of Walter Price’s work in “Toni Morrison’s Black Book”, curated by Hilton Als, David Zwirner, New York, January 20-February 20. 26, 2022. | Courtesy of David Zwirner

BOOKSHELF
“Walter Price: Pearl Lines” is the artist’s first major monograph. The volume accompanied a 2020 exhibition at the Camden Art Center in London and is edited by Darby English.