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