Artist Statement: Theodore Wilkins-Lang (American, b. 1999, Cairo)
Working with traditional photographic processes, printed at a large-scale, Wilkins-Lang approaches the photograph – primarily the portrait, or the “photographed Other” - as a locus in which to interrogate the contemporary hypercapitalist image-culture. Considering the image-saturated spectacle of social media and capitalist realism as a direct challenge to any photographer, he uses the portrait as a response, striving to confront the viewer with a dramatic, present Other; in opposition to the disposable deluge of meaningless others found in advertising, Instagram, and 24-hour news. Referring to himself colloquially as a “propogandist of existentialism”, he attempts to transpose the humanism of thinkers like Sartre into the photographic object, and then investigate where that object sits in the contemporary context.
Photo: Natalie Wesselius, 2023, Berlin
Education:
BA (Hons) Fine Art Photography, Glasgow School of Art, Sep 2018-June 2022
Exhibitions:
This Time Was Different, Solo Show, Encore at the Dundee Rep, August 2017
Better Late than Never…, Group Show, Richmond Building, Glasgow School of Art, May 2019
Pictures of Men, Pictures of Women, showing alongside Anouk Liewer, Le Salon at Overdale Avenue, November 2019
Peer Show, Group ShowCleveland Print Room, December 2019
Focal Points, Group Show, WASPS Studios, Glasgow, February 2020
Artist in Residence Exhibition, showing alongside Camilo Gonzalez Barragan, Cleveland Print Room, August 2021
Interim, Group Show, 16 Nicholson St, Glasgow, February 2022
Variety at Variety, Trio Show, showing alongside Vincent Jager and Florence Peters, Variety, Glasgow, February 2022
Crit For Wine, Trio Flat Show, showing alongside Anouk Liewer and Joanna Stawnicka, Glasgow, March 2022
Living Room, Group Show, Old Hairdressers, Glasgow, March 2022
Futureproof, Group Show, Streetlevel Photoworks, Glasgow, November 2022
Eye to Paper: Paper Stage Drawing Show, Group Show, Edinburgh Palette, Edinburgh, August 2023
2023 Scottish Portrait Awards, Group Show, Scottish Arts Club, September 2023
Publications Featured In:
The Wall, work featured “Final Resting Place”, Glasgow, June 2021
The Skinny Degree Show Insert, Fine Art Graduate feature, co-wrote with Amy Strzoda, Glasgow, June 2021
Residencies:
Cleveland Print Room, Artist in residence, Cleveland OH, USA, June-August 2021
Awards:
Royal Scottish Academy New Contemporary 2024