Wade Guyton OS

Oct 4, 2012–Jan 13, 2013

A Wade Guyton inkjet print. The letter U two times, with flames underneath.
A Wade Guyton inkjet print. The letter U two times, with flames underneath.

Wade Guyton (b. 1972), Untitled, 2006. Epson UltraChrome inkjet on linen, 90 x 53 in. (228.6 x 134.6 cm). Collection of Nina and Frank Moore. © Wade Guyton. Photograph by Lamay Photo

Over the past decade, New York–based artist Wade Guyton (b. 1972) has pioneered a groundbreaking body of work that explores our changing relationships to images and artworks through the use of common digital technologies, such as the desktop computer, scanner, and inkjet printer. Guyton’s purposeful misuse of these tools to make paintings and drawings results in beautiful accidents that relate to daily lives now punctuated by misprinted photos and blurred images on our phone and computer screens. Comprising more than eighty works dating from 1999 to the present, Guyton’s first midcareer survey features a dramatic, non-chronological design in which staggered rows of parallel walls confront the viewer like the layered pages of a book or stacked windows on a monitor. The exhibition includes paintings, drawings, photography, and sculpture, and concludes with two spectacular new canvases, stretching up to fifty feet in length, which Guyton created specifically for the Whitney’s Marcel Breuer–designed building. The title, Wade Guyton OSemploys the common acronym for a computer’s “operating system,” linking Guyton’s art to the technologies of our time.

Wade Guyton OS is organized by Scott Rothkopf, Curator and Associate Director of Programs.

Generous support for Wade Guyton OS is provided by the National Committee of the Whitney Museum of American Art, Candy and Michael Barasch, Allison and Warren Kanders, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, and IPPOLITA.

Significant support is provided by Mike De Paola, Erin and Peter Friedland, Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis, Tony Salamé: Aïshti foundation, Constance R. Caplan, Nina and Frank Moore, Suzi and Andrew B. Cohen, Brigitte and Arend Oetker, Martin and Rebecca Eisenberg, Barbara and Howard Morse, and The Cowles Charitable Trust. 

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In the News

"The Whitney Museum has a hit on its hands: a beautiful show organized by a young curator that makes a cogent case for the work of a young artist."
—The New York Times

"In 2002, Wade Guyton invented a new paintbrush. Its name was the Epson printer."
—New York Magazine

"[Wade Guyton's] exploration of what constitutes a painting, a sculpture and a drawing offers enough information and leaves enough room for rumination to reward multiple visits."
—Art in America


"The work is ingenious, and also moving, as a counterattack of the spirit on a culture whose proliferating technical means disembody imagination."
—The New Yorker (subscription required)

Profile on Wade Guyton: "Painting, Rebooted"
—The New York Times

"Sprawling, Grandiose Paintings Made From Humble Jammed Printers"
—Co.Design

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

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