Artist creates his first sculptural work, sited in street-facing landscape at the home of art patrons Janelle and Alden Pinnell
DALLAS, Texas (July 6, 2021)—The Nasher Sculpture Center announces its third offsite Nasher Public project and the first sculptural work by Dallas painter Paul Winker, located on the landscape in front of 3708 Lexington Avenue, the home of Janelle and Alden Pinnell, art collectors, Nasher patrons and owners of the celebrated Dallas art space, The Power Station.
Called Untitled (Shroud), Winker’s sculpture uses much the same process he follows for his paintings, which he starts with drawings he makes with his finger on a computer touch pad. These unpremeditated gestures take on an awkward precision in the computer. They are slightly wonky, akin to the simplicity of finger painting, but with a more precise edge as the computer translates the touch of his fingermarks. These computer-mediated finger drawings then become sources for his paintings, which he paints the traditional way with brush on canvas. The Nasher Public commission gave Winker the opportunity to manifest one of his painted shapes in three dimensions. Rather than painting the form on a squared canvas, he produced the wavy rectangle as a free-standing sculptural form, using much the same materials and techniques as his paintings, but adapting them to outdoor display with the technical advice of renowned Dallas architect, Gary Cunningham.
Untitled (Shroud) responds to the specifics of its site, mediating between the angular geometry of the architecture and the wild nature of the landscaping. While Winker comes up with his shapes freely doodling on his touch pad, some resonate with his memory-store of images from archaeology and art history. Untitled (Shroud) recalls prehistoric monoliths, as well as modernist evocations of them, unique forms in the landscape that stand out as meaningful monuments. Winker credits two courses he took at University of North Texas as significant to his thinking: an art history seminar on earthworks and environmental art of the 1960s and 70s and a studio art course called Hybrid Forms. The conceptual scope of the earthworks, connecting the present with the ancient past and almost spiritual sense of one’s place in the universe, struck a chord with Winker. The Hybrid Forms course, taught by noted painter and professor Vernon Fisher, pushed Winker and other students to explore and incorporate in their practices media outside of their comfort zones. Untitled (Shroud) can be seen as a culmination of ruminating on these scholastic experiences for several years: a hybrid of drawing, painting, and sculpture, the manual and the digital, Winker’s simple form is a monument for the present moment.
About Paul Winker
Paul Winker is an artist based in Dallas. He received his BFA in Painting and Drawing at the University of North Texas in Denton in 2015 and has been included in several group exhibitions in the area, including at Goss-Michael Foundation, The Power Station, and Texas Women’s University. He has also had several solo and collaborative presentations at AND NOW gallery.
About 3708 Lexington Ave.
Untitled (Shroud) was commissioned for Nasher Public by Janelle and Alden Pinnell and is hosted in front of their home, which was designed by Alterstudio Architecture, an architecture and design firm based in Austin. The house features striated Indiana limestone atop a glass façade that connects the communal spaces on the first floor to its landscaped surroundings, designed by award-winning Dallas landscape architect, David Hocker of Hocker Design Group. Alterstudio received a 2021 Citation Award from the Residential Design Architecture Awards (RDAA) for its design of the house.