The exhibition

Clay Ketter’s works are both abstract compositions and down-to-earth constructions, both art and reality. When two gypsum boards with spackled joints and screws are called a Wall Painting, they are, rather than represent, a wall – as yet unpainted. As paintings and sculptures, these works position themselves in American art history with roots in abstract painting and minimalism. But the viewer is out on a limb here. What looks like a ready-made at first sight, something the artist has selected straight from real life, turns out to be manufactured or processed after careful aesthetic and visual consideration.

The works are often based on architecture, furniture, constructs that can also symbolise the social construct in a broader sense. Clay Ketter never directly depicts people in his art, but their traces have a lot to say about the world we are building – about norms and standards, about man’s vulnerability and other social, political and existential issues. Why are there no windows in these houses?

The traces and remains of a home after demolition or after the ravages of a natural disaster are tragic but nevertheless beautiful. This is contemporary ruin romanticism, matter-of-factly presented without sentimentality. Clay Ketter’s art reveals processes: construction, life and destruction.