Wade Guyton – Same Same but Different

Series: Untitled, 2006.
Epson UltraChrome inkjet on linen, 89 × 54 in. (226.1 × 137.2 cm). © Wade Guyton

Wade Guyton, New York–based artist (b. 1972) has pioneered a groundbreaking body of work that explores our changing relationships to images and artworks through the use of common digital technologies, such as the desktop computer, scanner, and inkjet printer. Guyton’s purposeful misuse of these tools to make paintings and drawings results in beautiful accidents that relate to daily lives now punctuated by misprinted photos and blurred images on our phone and computer screens.

The work explores the distinction between painting and printed images. The artist’s printer-generated paintings highlight the inherent inconsistencies of mechanical reproduction. While machines are designed for identical outputs, each piece exhibits unique ‘painterly errors’ stemming from process variations, such as intentional manipulation or unintentional misalignment. This approach blurs the boundaries between design and art genres.

The typeface selection, Microsoft Blair ITC Medium, is a significant element. Designed by The International Typeface Corporation, a company notable for its transition from metal to phototype in the late 1960s, this typeface represents a portion of ITC’s extensive library of over 1,650 designs. The artist’s rationale for choosing this typeface suggests considerations of licensing, a well-executed modern sans-serif aesthetic, and a nostalgic curvature

the ” X ” he chose as the subject / ‘figuration’ in his works is ideal because it lends an almost human form to the piece, like a body with limbs…

In our world, the way we think and learn is through language. That’s how we organise our thoughts and give meaning to things. By removing a single letter from its context, this painting gives us an opportunity to question our associations.

possible associations of culture codes:

• Kiss; (two lips “crossing over”)
• Generation X ;
• x-axis = The horizontal axis;
• Crossing, errors and Don’t;
• In algebra to mean a variable + unknown constant;
• Multiplication
• Ecstasy, a particular street drug;
• Forbidden +18 things;
• Intersection
• Ten in Roman numeral

+ it aligns with in ways i use my ‘x’ in my own branding and name! firstly its my initial, other than the symmetric look — power of the character lies in the method by which it is drawn — it crosses space, it marks time, it defines confluence, things come together, intersect then depart, it flattens the dimensional and it creates visionary form where the imagination strikes.

https://whitney.org/Exhibitions/WadeGuyton

ITC, The Most Trusted Name in Letters

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/evolution-the-self/201603/whats-so-fascinating-about-the-letter-x