Artist: Lillian Paige Walton
Exhibition title: Six Drawings
Venue: King’s Leap, New York, US
Date: May 6 – June 13, 2021
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and King’s Leap, New York
King’s Leap is proud to present the frst solo exhibition of works by Lillian Paige Walton. The show, a suite of new graphite and color pencil drawings, coincides with the release of Walton’s debut collection of fction, Meter-Wide Button. The book is the inaugural publication of Sapp Press, the literary ofshoot of King’s Leap. In Six Drawings, Walton builds dense and mysterious narratives that are as surreal as they are quotidian. These new drawings evoke the psychological complexities of her new book, with each body of work representing distinct and interlocking tableaus.
An excerpt from Walton’s story, “Real Teacher”, in Meter-Wide Button, available through Sapp Press:
“[…] Daniel turned to examine the rice paper drawings more closely. Each composition had a similar format: a few handwritten sentences in clumsy late Gothic script at the top, followed by a small illustration at the bottom. An example on Daniel’s right called to him. The composition seemed more sophisticated than the others. Figures labeled Mom, Dad, Moo and Emma (Babysitter) were cowering beneath what appeared to be a kitchen table. Above them, a car was pulling in through an open door. The door and the car were slightly smaller than the fgures, indicating that these objects were positioned further back in space than the rest. Atop the car stood a small boy. His scowl was represented by a small dash below his nose. In the boy’s right hand he held a gun, which he was using to shoot large, round pellets into the air. Vicious-looking dogs or perhaps wild pigs (it was difcult to tell) fanked the car. The boy’s eyes were orange scribbles. Daniel re-read the caption above the image: Me when I don’t get what I want, by Combo, age 7.”
Lillian Paige Walton (b. Allentown, Pennsylvania) is a visual artist and writer who lives and works in Brooklyn. She is the author of a self-published chapbook and a short story collection Meter-Wide Button (Sapp Press, 2021). Recent and past exhibitions include a three-person presentation with artists Wai Ching Chan and Jenny Takahashi Palmer by Wet Green at May Fair Art Fair (Auckland, NZ), W.A.D.S. (We Already Died So) a two-person with Laura Hunt at US Blues, and group exhibitions at Alyssa Davis Gallery, Hotel Art Pavillion, and Eli Ping Frances Perkins (New York, NY).
Lillian Paige Walton, Six Drawings, 2021, exhibition view, King’s Leap, New York
Lillian Paige Walton, Six Drawings, 2021, exhibition view, King’s Leap, New York
Lillian Paige Walton, Reticence of the Server, 2020, Wax and Water-soluble pencil on paper, 17 ½ x 24 inches [44 x 61 cm], Framed dimensions: 21 x 27 ½ inches [53 x 70 cm]
Lillian Paige Walton, Six Drawings, 2021, exhibition view, King’s Leap, New York
Lillian Paige Walton, The Glass Divides and Sometimes Opens, 2021, Wax and Water-soluble pencil on paper, 10 ½ x 9 ¼ inches [27 x 24 cm], Framed dimensions: 13 ½ x 12 inches [34 x 30 cm]
Lillian Paige Walton, The Writer, 2020, Graphite on Paper, 11 1/2 x 18 inches [29 x 46 cm], Framed Dimensions: 14 ¾ x 22 inches [38 x 56 cm]
Lillian Paige Walton, Six Drawings, 2021, exhibition view, King’s Leap, New York
Lillian Paige Walton, Earth Records It, 2021, Wax and Water-soluble pencil on paper, 11 ¾ x 18 inches [30 x 46 cm], Framed dimensions: 15 x 21 ½ inches [38 x 55 cm]
Lillian Paige Walton, Six Drawings, 2021, exhibition view, King’s Leap, New York
Lillian Paige Walton, Tourism, 2021, Graphite on Paper, 8 x 12 inches [20 x 31 cm], Framed dimensions: 11 ½ x 15 inches [29 x 38 cm]
Lillian Paige Walton, Vagabond, 2021, Wax and Water-soluble pencil on paper, 10 ½ x 8 ½ [27 x 22 cm], Framed dimensions: 13 ½ x 11 inches [34 x 28 cm]