De Wain Valentine's first New York survey in 30 years opens at David Zwirner

'I just want to say one word to you. Just one word… plastics.' Nearly 50 years later, the 'great future in plastics' promised to a rudderless Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate is finally here, in the form of De Wain Valentine's otherworldly yet organic works in polyester resin, on view until 7 August at David Zwirner gallery in New York.
'This is all about pieces of the sky and pieces of the ocean,' says Valentine, 78, surveying the exhibition of luminous, meticulously polished forms he cast in the 1960s and 1970s, after arriving in Los Angeles from his native Colorado, where schoolkids and their shop (industrial arts) teachers got the synthetic spoils of polymers developed for military use. 'Polyester resin allowed me to objectify the atmosphere – put it out in solid form, look at it, and say "This is what this is".'
The show's 21 works, spread across four rooms and the hallway that connects Zwirner's high-ceilinged, expansive white spaces on West 19th Street, include 'double pyramids' that resemble huge, cloudy gemstones and chunky, beveled rings that look popped from the tops of giant bottles (especially the one in beach-glassy blueish grey), but Valentine's atmospheric inspiration is most apparent – and affecting – in his circles. Balanced jauntily on their slender, convex edges, these translucent discs are monumental punch samplings of water and sky, alive with traces of sand, sun, and hazy LA smog.
For many years, Valentine kept a second studio in Hawaii, and Circle Blue Smoke Flow, 1970, a sheer cyan disc crowned by an earthy smudge, preserves in resin a fragment of Waialea Bay. 'You look straight down at that crystal blue water, at the white sand on the bottom, and see the dappling of sand,' explains Valentine. 'I was able to recreate a piece of that and stand it on the edge.'
The artist's eye for proportion comes into view with his columns: extruded prisms that grow from the circles. These slender sculptures stretch upward in dialogue with the human form and, in the smoky greys Valentine favoured in the mid-1970s, call attention to their sleek surfaces, polished to a high gleam through a sequence of sandpaper grits that can remove thousands of pounds worth of resin. 'You never really see them until the last polish,' he notes.
'De Wain ended up in California at a moment when many artists were looking at alternative ways of making sculpture and installations, and his expertise innovated not only within contemporary art but touched many artistic careers around him,' says Kristine Bell, who organised the exhibition, the first New York survey of Valentine's work in 30 years. 'It's a story that needs to be retold here – and it’s long overdue.'
The exhibition features the polyester resin pieces Valentine cast in the 1960s and 1970s, after arriving in Los Angeles from his native Colorado. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
'Polyester resin allowed me to objectify the atmosphere – put it out in solid form, look at it, and say "This is what this is"'. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Valentine's 'double pyramid' piece resembles huge, cloudy gemstones. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Valentine's atmospheric inspiration is most apparent in his circles. Balanced jauntily on their slender, convex edges, these translucent discs are monumental punch samplings of water and sky, alive with traces of sand, sun, and hazy LA smog. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Circle Blue Smoke Flow, 1970 – pictured to the rear – is a sheer cyan disc crowned by an earthy smudge, preserving in resin a fragment of Waialea Bay in Hawaii. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The artist's eye for proportion comes into view with his columns: extruded prisms that grow from the circles. These slender sculptures stretch upward in dialogue with the human form. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
'It's a story that needs to be retold here – and it's long overdue,' says exhibition organiser Kristine Bell. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The exhibition will be on show at Zwirner's West 19th Street space until 7 August. Valentine/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
ADDRESS
David Zwirner
519, 525 & 533 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox.
Stephanie Murg is a writer and editor based in New York who has contributed to Wallpaper* since 2011. She is the co-author of Pradasphere (Abrams Books), and her writing about art, architecture, and other forms of material culture has also appeared in publications such as Flash Art, ARTnews, Vogue Italia, Smithsonian, Metropolis, and The Architect’s Newspaper. A graduate of Harvard, Stephanie has lectured on the history of art and design at institutions including New York’s School of Visual Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.
-
We explore Franklin Israel’s lesser-known, progressive, deconstructivist architecture
Franklin Israel, a progressive Californian architect whose life was cut short in 1996 at the age of 50, is celebrated in a new book that examines his work and legacy
By Michael Webb Published
-
Ed Atkins confronts death at Tate Britain
In his new London exhibition, the artist prods at the limits of existence through digital and physical works, including a film starring Toby Jones
By Emily Steer Published
-
This new furniture showroom is our dream New York loft
Designer Josh Greene designs a jewel-toned New York oasis for L.A. based favourite, Lawson-Fenning
By Anna Fixsen Published
-
Desert X 2025 review: a new American dream grows in the Coachella Valley
Will Jennings reports from the epic California art festival. Here are the highlights
By Will Jennings Last updated
-
This rainbow-coloured flower show was inspired by Luis Barragán's architecture
Modernism shows off its flowery side at the New York Botanical Garden's annual orchid show.
By Tianna Williams Published
-
‘Psychedelic art palace’ Meow Wolf is coming to New York
The ultimate immersive exhibition, which combines art and theatre in its surreal shows, is opening a seventh outpost in The Seaport neighbourhood
By Anna Solomon Published
-
Wim Wenders’ photographs of moody Americana capture the themes in the director’s iconic films
'Driving without a destination is my greatest passion,' says Wenders. whose new exhibition has opened in New York’s Howard Greenberg Gallery
By Osman Can Yerebakan Published
-
20 years on, ‘The Gates’ makes a digital return to Central Park
The 2005 installation ‘The Gates’ by Christo and Jeanne-Claude marks its 20th anniversary with a digital comeback, relived through the lens of your phone
By Tianna Williams Published
-
In ‘The Last Showgirl’, nostalgia is a drug like any other
Gia Coppola takes us to Las Vegas after the party has ended in new film starring Pamela Anderson, The Last Showgirl
By Billie Walker Published
-
‘American Photography’: centuries-spanning show reveals timely truths
At the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Europe’s first major survey of American photography reveals the contradictions and complexities that have long defined this world superpower
By Daisy Woodward Published
-
Miami’s new Museum of Sex is a beacon of open discourse
The Miami outpost of the cult New York destination opened last year, and continues its legacy of presenting and celebrating human sexuality
By Anna Solomon Published