Darryl Westly

Crossing Art is proud to present Home, a solo exhibition showcasing paintings by Darryl Westly. Exploring the nature of home as an ever-unfolding journey, one that is simultaneously deeply personal and resonates universally, the works appeal to the core of human belonging. Through an intentional, targeted mastery of paint, Westly’s unique note of both familiarity and transcendence echoes across this collection. Our shared quest for meaning, and the nature of memory, are interwoven in kaleidoscopic renderings of homely comforts - and suspended in swaths of untouched linen.

Home is presented as an icon of the collective human experience: Westly considers what signifies a home through interiors, sans figuration. The intricate weavings of his space situate and integrate the viewer as subject, inviting rumination on one’s associations with comfort and warmth. The artist’s profound effort to disassemble early memories rebuilds elements of his South Chicago upbringing, which delves into the complex nature of leisure and peace within a diverse society. In his own words, “the couch and table represent two pillars of what makes a home: rest and sustenance, a necessary means for growth and supporting life”.

The unconscious elements of Home are most apparent in the themes guiding the eye between an abstract dream-field, and flowers that defy logic yet maintain whimsical structures of their own. The elaborate process of Westly’s floral designs consist of digitally layered and manipulated images, with a self-aware reminiscence of an old deskptop home screen or screen-saver background; this universally shared nostalgia for the earliest era of personal computers radiates with a quiet refinement.

As a diamond spurs our innate collective draw to sparkling clear waters, Darryl Westly’s imagery draws us closer to a sense of home and through it, a crucial message of hope for grander reflections on our innate collective unity emerges.

Digital photography, social media and information technology earch serve as points of departure from which Darryl Westly develops the visual language of his paintings. Vacillating between abstract and representational, Westly’s works utilize an assortment of painting mediums and techniques to distill different aspects of contemporary visual culture. Whether through investigating the lens of a police body camera or the restaging of a historical artwork, Westly’s work aims to highlight how the aesthetics of visual culture reflect not only the past but our understanding of ourselves, and the world that surrounds us.

For Westly, painting is a way in which to mediate what we see with what we choose to believe. As social media has allowed for more diverse perspectives to be filtered and presented than ever before, sorting through all the information this provides proves to be daunting and confusing, which is reflected in the process of how the artist represents his subjects through paint. By condensing images, separating colors and removing/adding information, Westly’s images parallel the ways in which information is digested through our phones and the internet, commenting on the impermanence of archiving and imagery. In his paintings, the language of digital spaces has replaced the natural world, adding a layer of complexity to the ways we recognize and exchange information.

In September of 2023, Westly completed his first permanent public art work for the State of New York’s new Westbury MTA LIRR station in Long Island. Titled ‘Illuminations’, his commission serves as a dynamic and allegorical reflection on the people and places of Westbury; the project uses glass, metal, light, and shadow as equal counterparts, creating symbols of remembrance and an environment for transitory contemplation.

Darryl Westly received his BFA from the Cooper Union in 2014. Solo exhibitions include ‘A Dream Deferred’ at 1969 Gallery in New York and ‘Interior/Exterior’ at ParisTexasLA Gallery in Los Angeles. Group shows include ‘Arcadia and Elsewhere’ at James Cohan Gallery, NY and ‘Manscaping’ at The Hole, LA. Select publications include Interview, Juxtapose, Whitewall, Artnet, Surface Magazine, The Brooklyn Rail, Artsy and Office Magazine, and part of important collections such as the Rema Hort Mann Foundation, Portland Museum of Art, The Fidelity Collection, and others. Westly lives and works in NYC, New York.