See Line Gallery presents Wallpaper of Champions, Chris Oatey’s first solo exhibition, which includes drawings, sculpture and sound installation.
In Wallpaper of Champions, Chris Oatey uses sports imagery as subject matter towards a greater understanding of entertainment as spectacle. Crowds of spectators are juxtaposed with athletes to create a wallpaper of imagery on two walls of the gallery. Working with photographs as a reference, Oatey has drawn images through a process of removal. Carbon transfer drawings focus the viewer on certain parts of a picture, whether it is a pose or facial expression. Drawings of team photos show us only the silhouette of uniforms while a drawing of a crowd is made up of raised arms. A degree of specificity has been taken from the images and allows the viewer to focus on what remains.
Wallpaper of Champions makes us consider how we identify with professional athletes, the spaces they compete in, and how reception of these events creates a longing and cathartic sensation within the spectator. It follows the direction Oatey’s practice has taken by drawing spectacle imagery through labor-intensive processes. The photographs were filtered through an unskilled drawing process that recreated their spectacle character in order to question their magnitude as images.
Chris Oatey was most recently chosen for the Kent State University Drawing Invitational in Ohio and to exhibit his work at Creative Artists Agency in Los Angeles. His work has also been shown in the Forum Invitational at Cranbrook Academy of Art, New California Masters at Works, San Jose, and the LA Weekly Biennial at Track 16 Gallery in Santa Monica.