Skip to main content
Video Loading
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 22

Wesley Kimler
The Maven - Monumental Scale Reclining Figure, Abstract Expressionist Painting

2021

About the Item

Wesley Kimler (born 1953) an American artist based in Chicago, Illinois, is known for his colossal paintings, up to 15 feet high and 27 feet wide. According to critic Kevin Nance, these are "expressive, gestural, hybrid paintings that combine abstract and figurative elements in a way that's theatrical and beautiful, sometimes grotesque and surreal, and always powerfully evocative." Wesley Kimler was born in Billings, Montana. His family moved to California in 1959, where Kimler lived until he left home at the age of 14. Thereafter, he lived in San Francisco, Taos, New Mexico (where he studied music), Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and Afghanistan. In that country, the then 20-year-old Kimler lived in Herat, Kandahar and Kabul, working as an agent for a dealer in traditional carpets. Kimler first began to paint at the age of 21, studying one year at the Laguna Gloria School of Art in Austin, Texas and 2 years at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. The artist first showed in the mid 1980s at Frumkin-Struve (later simply Struve) Gallery in Chicago. In addition to the Struve Gallery exhibitions in 1985, 86, 87 and 90, other notable shows by Kimler include those at Barbara Kornblatt Gallery in Washington, DC in 1986, LA Louver Gallery in Los Angeles in 1987 and 1990, Paula Anglim in San Francisco in 1990, "The Real Deal" with artists Ed Paschke and Tony Fitzpatrick in 1994, a Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago solo exhibition in 1995, as well as inclusion in "Art in Chicago, 1945-1995" exhibition at the latter institution in 1996. Kimler's work can be seen in the group show "The Long Dream" currently at the MCA Chicago. Kimler's art has been acquired by many institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Berkeley Art Museum in Berkeley, California, the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, the Weisman Art Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and in Chicago's Block Museum, Smart Museum, Aon Tower and Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as in numerous private collections. Lisa Wainwright, a professor of art history and dean of graduate studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, has said of Kimler's art: "It's heroic, moral painting. He lives and breathes his art in the way the great painters did."
  • Creator:
    Wesley Kimler (1953, American)
  • Creation Year:
    2021
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 110 in (279.4 cm)Width: 120 in (304.8 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Framing:
    Framing Options Available
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Chicago, IL
  • Reference Number:
    Seller: WYK0061stDibs: LU55437829372

More From This Seller

View All
Figure - Original Abstract Oil Painting, Bright Yellow and Black with Figures
By Wesley Kimler
Located in Chicago, IL
Wesley Kimler (born 1953) an American artist based in Chicago, Illinois, is known for his colossal paintings, up to 15 feet high and 27 feet wide. According to critic Kevin Nance, th...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Elly May Kelly, Three Panel Abstract Oil Painting of a Figure - Wesley Kimler
By Wesley Kimler
Located in Chicago, IL
Spanning across three canvas panels, Kimler uses vibrant colors of blue and yellow to background a deep red abstracted cyclops figure. Kimler's use of expressive brushstrokes and bri...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Let Her Go - Thickly Painted Impasto Surface Oil Painting with Dream-Like Scene
By Victor Wang
Located in Chicago, IL
Victor Wang's highly textured paintings involve thick layers of paint over collaged images from the Tang Dynasty. In "Let Her Go", the foreground shows a modern female figure sitting upon the side of a boat which gives the impression she is wearing wings and about to take flight. Upon closer look, there are various scenes taking place around her in the water - warriors with knives drawn, a jeep in pursuit of some unseen enemy, a cauldron boiling over. Influence by the Renaissance Masters, Titian and Rembrandt for their glazing and layering techniques respectively, the artist builds the surface using heavy paint, swirling and mixing the color on the canvas. The end result is a poetic and emotionally powerful representation of the human form. Victor Wang Let Her Go oil on canvas 48h x 60w in 121.92h x 152.40w cm VWG011 My path through life has been adventurous, exciting, and dream-like. My experience of settling into America in search of better opportunities has been both challenging and inspiring. I use the human face as a vehicle to paint human experiences - worry and wonder, sadness and pleasure - which reflect the emotional stage directly tied to my immigration experiences. I grew up amongst the sunflower fields in northern China. In my childhood years, I played under the bright, yellow sunflowers with my brothers everyday. China’s Cultural Revolution played an important part in my life. During that time, sunflowers were used as political allegories to depict how citizens of China should follow Mao who represented the sun, since sunflowers follow the sun’s movements. People eventually inferred the deception that this symbol masked. After graduating from high school, I was sent to a labor camp in the country for ‘reeducation’ during China’s Cultural Revolution. There, I was subject to grueling farm work. Often, I worked in corn and sunflower fields from sunrise to sunset. Thus, for me, sunflowers evoke both personal joy and sadness. Therefore, to deliver my complex feelings, I use sunflowers as a metaphor to connote my background and emotional stage. My incorporation of collages of figures from China’s Tang Dynasty represents my Chinese heritage and is a constant reminder of where I came from. The texture and earthiness on the canvas’s surface are inspired by the texture of the soil on the farm where I worked in China. Although I often gain great pleasure from the process of painting, it is most important to unfold expressively those feelings within myself. Wang belongs to a generation of immigrant painters from China, whose artistic background was defined by socialist realism but took advantage of their skills and broke away from that tradition to create new subjects in the U.S. “When I was a student during Cultural Revolution, Soviet realism art was among the dominant source of influence and it grabbed us like lightening...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil

Hot Fox in the Henhouse - Large Scale Abstract Expressionist Painting
By Wesley Kimler
Located in Chicago, IL
Wesley Kimler (born 1953) an American artist based in Chicago, Illinois, is known for his colossal paintings, up to 15 feet high and 27 feet wide. According to critic Kevin Nance, th...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Oil

Collage - Paint and Charcoal Abstract Collage by Wesley Kimler, Framed
By Wesley Kimler
Located in Chicago, IL
Combining fractions of abstracted drawings into one, Kimler creates a whole new abstracted form. With expressive pours of black and brightly colored paints and brushwork in charcoal ...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Charcoal, Acrylic, Archival Paper, Graphite

Collage - Paint and Charcoal Abstract Collage by Wesley Kimler, Framed
By Wesley Kimler
Located in Chicago, IL
Combining fractions of abstracted drawings into one, Kimler creates a whole new abstracted form. With expressive pours of black and brightly colored paints and brushwork in charcoal ...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Charcoal, Acrylic, Archival Paper, Graphite

You May Also Like

'I'll Be Back, ' by XVALA, Mixed Media Painting
By XVALA
Located in Oklahoma City, OK
'I'll Be Back,' by XVALA is a mixed media painting and colorful screen print with iridescent oil stick painting featuring the theme of the 'New World Order.' It was produced in 2015/16. The phrase 'I'll Be Back' is printed on the top and bottom margins of the work with the words 'New World Order' on the top margin. Three heads are stacked in the center of the canvas with the 'all seeing eye' on the top of the head. XVALA's art illuminates the hidden fallout spawned from our high tech Internet age. His 'Fear Google' campaign exposed the decay of privacy and 'No Delete' used hacked nude celebrity photos to highlight loss of control over personal information. The artist has worked with trash from the homes of Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, and others, as well as dirt from the graves of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley. The dirt appears in the New World Order collection as part of a pyramidal, 3D printed, living ant farm...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Mixed Media, Screen, Oil

French Contemporary Abstract Painting Gold Highlights Expressionist Composition
Located in Cirencester, Gloucestershire
Artist/ School: French expressionist/ abstract contemporary artist, 21st century Title: Abstract composition Medium: oil/mixed media painting on canvas, unframed. canvas: 25.75...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas, Mixed Media

The Red Dress 5 - Framed Dynamic Original Red Figurative Abstract Oil Painting
By Bettina Mauel
Located in Los Angeles, CA
Bettina Mauel, an internationally collected artist, effortlessly channels vitality and sensuality through her awe-inspiring collection of abstract and figurative paintings. With an u...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Expressionist Figurative Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Graphite, Mixed Media, Oil

The Marriage Proposal - Abstract Painting Yellow Black White Brown Blue Grey
By Simon Richard Halimi
Located in Sofia, BG
"The Marriage Proposal " is an abstract style painting by the French artist Maestro Simon Richard Halimi. Through his art, he has a very sharp and unique style of bright and colorful...
Category

2010s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Canvas, Oil, Acrylic

"Untitled, " Oil, Mixed Media on Canvas - Abstract painting
By Dick Wray
Located in Houston, TX
This work, although understated in comparison to other works of Wrays, reflects the abstract expressionist’s devotion to freedom of expression, both in form and color, and his intere...
Category

1990s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Mixed Media, Oil, Canvas

Abstract Expressionist Composition on Black
By Ross H. Pollette
Located in Soquel, CA
Colorful and dynamic abstract composition by Ross H. Pollette, who also paints under the pseudonyms 'Max West' (American, b. 1948). Pollette has used oil, in...
Category

1980s Abstract Expressionist Abstract Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Ink, Mixed Media, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All