May 1 — July 25, 2020
A bird flew in through my window
Lance Letscher
Conduit Gallery is honored to announce the opening of, A bird flew in through my window, the tenth solo exhibition at Conduit Gallery for Austin based artist Lance Letscher.
The collages of Lance Letscher merge multiples of a given specimen– architectural engineering, ruby red flowers and cerulean expanses of open water, as well as their aquatic inhabitants, into maddening vibrations. Letscher’s hands cut and collate reclaimed paper, creations of their own, into new works that participate in a chaotic dance of romantic abundance.
For almost 30 years, Letscher has exclusively produced collage work, often on Masonite panels and book covers. Organic life and the architecture of modernity, as seen in educational charts and catalogues from the 1940’s boast brilliant chroma indicative of color lithography. Letscher’s blade precisely maneuvers when cutting around the many tendrils of the floral images, while wide seascapes and tree-lines are block out color in the background. This body of work features pieces framed by large bunches of apples, thickets of trees, and the aforementioned walls of water. The clippings in the center compete in bunches at times, at others they are seated in a polite chorus.
In 2009, the University of Texas Press published a monograph of Letscher’s work, which covered a period of work from 2001-2008. In 2016, the film, “The Secret Life of Lance Letscher” debuted at the South by Southwest Film Festival and has continued to screen in various film festivals, museums and film houses nationally, including Ovation TV. Directed by Austin based editor and long-time Richard Linklater collaborator, Sandra Adair, the film is a deeply personal and psychological portrait, edited by Adair with a soundtrack composed by Graham Reynolds.
Lance Letscher lives and works in Austin, TX where he earned a BFA and an MFA from the University of Texas. His work is shown internationally, including recent exhibitions in France, Switzerland, Spain, Belgium and Germany. He is represented by galleries in Paris, France; Santa Fe, NM; New York, NY; Jackson, WY; Austin, TX and Dallas, TX. His work is in museum collections including The McNay, San Antonio, TX; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; The Blanton Museum, Austin and the Tyler Museum, Tyler, TX.
Click here to see this exhibition in the viewing room