White Room: Tony Just

September 10–October 22, 2016
Three abstract paintings installed on three adjacent walls. Four book works are placed on a table near the left wall, with two pairs of white gloves for viewers to flip through the books.

Tony Just, installation view, 2016

Two nearly identical abstract paintings installed on adjacent walls: New Order on the left and Untitled on the right. Both are primarily composed of a large organic yellow shape on a white canvas.

Tony Just, installation view, 2016

A drawing of a blue circle in the center of a white canvas, framed in an antique, off-white cove frame.

Tony Just

Alex Müller medicine man meditation drawing, 2014

Pastel drawing mounted on glass with found frame

9.75 × 13 in. (24.8 × 33 cm.)

A book of printed illustrations that has been flipped open and painted over with translucent, bright orange paint in organic vertical stripes. The paint is mirrored over the two open pages.

Tony Just

Untitled (Albrecht Dürer: Complete Woodcuts), 2016

Red wine and gouache on book

Open: 12 × 18.5 × 2 in. (30.5 × 47 x5.1 cm.) Closed: 12 × 9.25 × 1.5 in. (30.5 × 23.5 × 3.8 cm.)

A book with the cover flipped open that has been dyed light purple and painted over with abstract shapes in opaque green paint. The paint is mirrored over the two open pages.

Tony Just Untitled, 2016

Watercolor and gouache on book

Open: 11 × 19.5 × 1 in. (27.9 × 49.5x 2.5 cm.) Closed: 11 × 9.75 × 1.5 in. (27.9 × 24.8 × 3.8 cm.)

An abstract painting composed of organic, fuzzy dark blue shapes on raw canvas. The negative space has a distinctly liquid look.

Tony Just

After Crying, 2016

Oil on canvas

20.87 × 28.94 × 1.77 in. (53 × 73.5 × 4.5 cm.)

Press Release

White Columns is pleased to present the first New York exhibition in almost a decade by the Berlin-based, American artist Tony Just. Just’s exhibition will align a recent group of ostensibly abstract paintings with a group of his unique, hand-painted book works.

Just’s paintings and book works have emerged from a largely organic drawing process. His book works, typically – though not exclusively – created on ‘found’ or existing volumes depict the shadows created by the artist’s fingers (and often drawn with the help of a studio assistant), then subsequently painted in with thin layers of watercolor, gouache, wine and grape juice. These essentially ‘abstract’ images are then the basis for Just’s monochromatic oil paintings, which both mirror and amplify the ‘Rorschach’-like format of the double-page book spreads.

About his intentions, Just has said: “Using elements of abstraction, representation, illustration and duplication I try to produce paintings which show the infinite possibilities of interpretation. The magic of seeing images revealed or dissolved. To move the viewer just a little bit closer to seeing something they may have missed.”

Tony Just (b.1969), Lives and works in Berlin. Just received an MFA from Hunter College, New York in 1994, and a BFA from the Art Institute of Chicago in 1992. He has shown his work internationally since the mid-1990s with solo exhibitions at Frederico Bianchi, Milan (2014); Sommer & Kohl, Berlin (2012 and 2009); and Gavin Brown’s enterprise (2007 and 2004.) He had a two-person exhibition with Elizabeth Peyton in 2003 at the Orient Historical Society, Orient, New York.

Checklist

Three abstract paintings installed on three adjacent walls. Four book works are placed on a table near the left wall, with two pairs of white gloves for viewers to flip through the books.
Two nearly identical abstract paintings installed on adjacent walls: New Order on the left and Untitled on the right. Both are primarily composed of a large organic yellow shape on a white canvas.
A drawing of a blue circle in the center of a white canvas, framed in an antique, off-white cove frame.
A book of printed illustrations that has been flipped open and painted over with translucent, bright orange paint in organic vertical stripes. The paint is mirrored over the two open pages.
A book with the cover flipped open that has been dyed light purple and painted over with abstract shapes in opaque green paint. The paint is mirrored over the two open pages.
An abstract painting composed of organic, fuzzy dark blue shapes on raw canvas. The negative space has a distinctly liquid look.

Tony Just, installation view, 2016 (Three abstract paintings installed on three adjacent walls. Four book works are placed on a table near the left wall, with two pairs of white gloves for viewers to flip through the books.)

Tony Just, installation view, 2016 (Two nearly identical abstract paintings installed on adjacent walls: New Order on the left and Untitled on the right. Both are primarily composed of a large organic yellow shape on a white canvas.)

Tony Just Alex Müller medicine man meditation drawing, 2014 Pastel drawing mounted on glass with found frame 9.75 × 13 in. (24.8 × 33 cm.) (A drawing of a blue circle in the center of a white canvas, framed in an antique, off-white cove frame.)

Tony Just Untitled (Albrecht Dürer: Complete Woodcuts), 2016 Red wine and gouache on book Open: 12 × 18.5 × 2 in. (30.5 × 47 x5.1 cm.) Closed: 12 × 9.25 × 1.5 in. (30.5 × 23.5 × 3.8 cm.) (A book of printed illustrations that has been flipped open and painted over with translucent, bright orange paint in organic vertical stripes. The paint is mirrored over the two open pages.)

Tony Just Untitled, 2016 Watercolor and gouache on book Open: 11 × 19.5 × 1 in. (27.9 × 49.5x 2.5 cm.) Closed: 11 × 9.75 × 1.5 in. (27.9 × 24.8 × 3.8 cm.) (A book with the cover flipped open that has been dyed light purple and painted over with abstract shapes in opaque green paint. The paint is mirrored over the two open pages.)

Tony Just After Crying, 2016 Oil on canvas 20.87 × 28.94 × 1.77 in. (53 × 73.5 × 4.5 cm.) (An abstract painting composed of organic, fuzzy dark blue shapes on raw canvas. The negative space has a distinctly liquid look.)