Wes Lang

Got a Head Full of Lighting, 2010, mixed media on paper, 48 x 76 inches, courtesy of the artist and ZieherSmith Gallery Portrait by Max Snow

interview by JULIANA BALESTIN
portrait by MAX SNOW

 

Wes lang isn’t afraid of anything. Self taught, he subsumes language and imagery in a perspective all his own. His Brooklyn studio is packed from top to bottom with vintage men’s magazines, motorcycles, and his painted tributes to lost friends and failed loves.

JULIANA BALESTIN — Where are you from? Where did you study?
WES LANG — New Jersey. I didn’t go to art school. I didn’t even start making work until I was 26 or 27. Then I got a job installing at Tony Shafrazi’s gallery. I started looking at works by Donald Baechler, Jean-Michel Basquiat, George Condo, and at Tony’s amazing collection….