Rachel Perry Welty @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 5 large scale color photographs, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the smaller back room gallery space. Each of the archival pigment prints is sized 40x30 and available in an edition of 6. The works were made in 2011 on a commission for Vogue. (Installation shots at right.)

Comments/Context: Rachel Perry Welty's newest show is a straightforward example of taking a visual aesthetic created in a fine art mode and applying it to a commercial project. Expanding on the optical illusion via everyday household items conceptual approach she developed in her series Lost in My Life, these works push further into the realm of branded luxury culture, taking on a more Pop Art feel.

On an accessories shoot for Vogue, Welty used signature fabrics from various fashion houses as the basis for her camouflage, matching generally flat patterned backgrounds with objects made out of the same prints to create her disappearing effect. These mirages are simpler and less sculptural than her earlier efforts, with less of a sense of drowning in hoarded piles of twist ties, bread tags, or vegetable price stickers. Instead, Welty vanishes into a brightly patterned pink and blue floral golf bag from Prada and a jumble of purple and green tote bags from Givenchy. Other visual tricks play on the black and white pansies of an Alexander Wang motorcycle helmet, the impressionistic flowers of a Kirkwood shoe, and the snakeskin bag and leather boots of a head to toe Balenciaga look.

While getting lost in couture brands might imply the seditious bite of anti-consumerist irony, these images are surprisingly light and decorative, the criticism muted to a quiet undercurrent. In the pages of Vogue, being defined by possessions or reveling in a luxurious pattern isn't necessarily a negative.

Collector's POV: The works in this small show are priced between $5000 and $7000 each. Welty's work has limited secondary market history at this point, so gallery retail is likely still the best option for collectors interested in following up.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)

Rachel Perry Welty
Through July 6th

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011

Rachel Perry Welty: Lost in My Life @Richardson

JTF (just the facts): A total of 7 large scale color photographs, framed in white with no mat, and hung in the main gallery space. The pigment prints are displayed in two different sizes: 56x35, in editions of 6, and 90x60, in editions of 3. There are 6 medium sized works and 1 large work on view. All of the images were made in 2010. (Installation shots at right.)
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Comments/Context: Critiques and satires of our pervasive consumer culture, with its brand obsessions, its throw-away mind set, and its more recent economic dark side have become increasingly common subject matter for contemporary photographers. Rachel Perry Welty's new work fits snugly into this ever-expanding genre, using a playful, light touch to expose the sheer expanse of our growing mountains of disposable stuff.
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Welty's images are meticulously constructed in her studio, where reams of cereal boxes, plastic bread tags, self-adhesive price stickers, and brightly colored twist ties have been transformed into clever sculptural environments where the artist hides in plain view. In one picture, she stands in a dress holding a shopping bag, disappearing as if camouflaged by a patterned ocean of yellow, white, and orange stickers. In another, her clothes are striped in a horizontal rainbow of lines, echoing the all-over thicket of twist ties (many marked "organically grown") pulled taut nearby. In a third, the round blue bubbles on her dress connect to others on the wall behind her and to an encroaching tower of Styrofoam take-out boxes that covers the floor. I was particularly impressed by her cylindrical basket of tiny bread ties, where hundreds of green, red, white, and orange plastic tabs have been woven into an elaborate, textured volume. In each and every image, her face is hidden; they are self-portraits or performances, where the detritus of her life obscures and overwhelms her self.

These works reminded me of JeongMee Yoon's pink and blue project, as well as of some of Vik Muniz' elaborate constructions of unexpected materials. They have a friendly, decorative feel, her message delivered without sober pronouncements or harsh hectoring; they're the kind of images that can successfully poke fun at the insanity of our consumer culture, without leaving the viewer depressed and disgusted.
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Collector's POV: Very few of the prints on display in this show were still available for purchase, so these works seem to be selling well. The ones that were left were priced as follows: the 56x35 prints were either $6000 or $7500, apparently depending on their place in the edition (the last two in the edition respectively I believe); the larger 90x60 print was POR, and when I requested the price, I was eventually told it was no longer available, so I'm not clear on what the price actually was. Welty's work has little or no secondary market history, so gallery retail is likely the only option for interested collectors at this point.
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Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)
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Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Northeastern faculty page (here)
• Interview: Art 21 (here)
• Review: New York Photo Review (here)

Rachel Perry Welty: Lost in My Life
Through December 23rd

Yancey Richardson Gallery
535 West 22nd Street
New York, NY 10011