CHRIS WATTS: WHEN THERE IS NO SUN

Monica King Contemporary, 32 Lispenard Street, New York, NY

September 12 - October 3, 2020

Monica King Contemporary presents the first solo exhibition in New York City of the New York-based artist Chris Watts. When There is No Sun features new mixed media works by Watts, which investigate and revise existing narratives, both personal and social— aiming to disrupt established perceptions so that new ones may emerge.

Watts describes his abstract compositions as windows through which distinctions between objective reality and constructed representations are blurred. The bodily is evoked through Watts’ use of diaphanous textiles, such as poly-chiffon and silk, which create semi-opaque surfaces that possess what the artist describes as “an embodied vulnerability.” Watts’ works question the way in which society thinks about the effects and materiality of racialized skin on display. Like skin, the works appears porous and breathable as light decelerates as it passes through the surfaces. This materiality is amplified in Watts’ works installed on black walls, the painted surface behind his work being integral to how the work is perceived.

Simultaneously translucent and nebulous, there is an atmospheric tension in Watts’ work that goes beyond the surface, bringing up notions of visibility, invisibility ­and disappearance. Throughout this body of work, Watts examines the black narrative in order to question representation and calls for a reconsideration what constitutes the terms of the visible.

Installation photography by Monica King