Generating content from an unlikely array of sources––including music subcultures and the visual vernaculars of cattle ranches and barrooms––Will Boone (b. 1982, Houston, Texas) makes works whose graphic power is matched by their palpable physicality. His technical processes are informed in equal measure by the DIY ethos of punk and the precision of industrial manufacturing, and give rise to paintings, sculptures, and immersive installations. Boone pays particular attention to forms that emerge from social contexts with no clear association to art historical narratives. Taken as a whole, his work serves as a repository for archetypal, if fragmentary, expressions of contemporary life. And despite the ephemeral nature of many of his sources, Boone’s work retains a formal timelessness and clarity that connect it to a wide range of art historical traditions.
Boone has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (2019), Karma, New York (2017), and the Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2014). A major installation was featured in Desert X 2017, Coachella Valley, California (2017). Other group shows include Zombies: Pay Attention!, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2019), White Trash, Luhring Augustine Bushwick, Brooklyn, New York (2017); Prototypology, Gagosian Gallery, Rome (2016); Fétiche, Venus Over Manhattan, New York (2016); In Different Ways, Almine Rech, London (2016); and Love For Three Oranges, Gladstone Gallery, Brussels (2015). Boone lives and works in Los Angeles.
Will Boone
Street Avenger, 2018
acrylic, enamel, resin, and nylon flag on canvas
100 x 75 x 1 3/4 inches
(254 x 190.5 x 4.4 cm)
Will Boone
Hero Cape, 2018
enamel on bronze, steel
77 1/4 x 60 x 26 inches
(196.2 x 152.4 x 66 cm)
Will Boone
Freak, 2018
acrylic on canvas over wood panel
73 x 48 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches
(185.4 x 122.6 x 3.2 cm)
Will Boone
Presidio, 2017
enamel, resin, acrylic, and nylon flag on canvas
70 1/4 x 60 x 2 1/2 inches
(178.4 x 152.4 x 6.4 cm)
Will Boone
Frankenstein, 2017
enamel on bronze
30 5/8 x 20 x 41 1/2 inches
(77.8 x 50.8 x 105.4 cm)
Will Boone
CUT, 2017
acrylic on canvas
100 x 75 x 1 1/2 inches
(254 x 190.5 x 3.8 cm)
Will Boone
CAR, 2016
customized Chevrolet Blazer, various materials
70 x 80 x 192 inches
(177.8 x 203.2 x 487.7 cm)
Will Boone
Underground Monument, 2016
bondo, plastic model, wood, cardboard, acrylic paint, and gap filler foam on wood panel
22 x 25 x 7 1/2 inches
(55.9 x 63.5 x 19.1 cm)
Will Boone
Born to Sleep in the Sun II, 2015
acrylic, magazine clippings, photos, bar top resin on wood
69 x 36 3/4 x 33 1/2 inches
(175.3 x 93.3 x 85.1 cm)
Will Boone
Untitled, 2015
enamel, acrylic on canvas
130 x 96 inches
(330.2 x 243.8 cm)
Will Boone
Untitled, 2014
gasoline can, concrete, rebar
48 x 6 1/2 x 4 inches
(121.9 x 16.5 x 10.2 cm)
Will Boone
GRACELAND, 2014
weight bench, carpet, acrylic on plywood, gate, Chevrolet Blazer car seat, quilt, pool table light, bottle opener, perfume, photographs, newspaper clippings, extension cord, steel rebar, concrete, wire glass window, USMC gasoline can
dimensions variable
Alina Cohen