Sorry readers, photo removed due to artist’s request–

Typically I am pretty kind when it comes to writing about artists who are generous enough to let people into their studios. But I have to say that as far as Guyton’s work is concerned…I just don’t get it. I mean, I get it, but it doesn’t resonate at all with me. Unable to draw or sculpt anything that people found interesting (his words, not mine), Guyton creates simple shapes in Photoshop and then uses a commercial sized inkjet printer to make his works by printing those shapes out onto large-scale canvases. Happenstance causes misalignments and skips and runs in the printed outcome but that is part of the work. As opposed to creating works this way out of a strong desire, it is almost as if he lazily made a conscious choice. Read the excerpt from a recent magazine interview:

GUYTON: That’s why I don’t draw now and why I use the printer. [laughs] That’s how it started. I was trying to do these stupid marker drawings, something hard-edged and geometric, and I got so bored. It was too much work. I could just type the same thing into the computer, and the printer did a much better job.-Interview magazine

His objects are now considered paintings by galleries and the art world. Initially he was more interested in conceptual art than the materiality of paint so he tore books apart and copied them making portable works. He used the computer as a writing tool and by printing simple images over and over again he figured something good would come out of it eventually. In order to enter the art world and be taken seriously, he figured he needed to make paintings so he put handmade linen canvases from Provence through the printer. How much of a sell-out can you be? You don’t create due to the need to express yourself but because you want to become part of the mainstream art world’s discourse. And in discussing his work when asked questions by the group, he seemed almost pained and bored as if we had barged in to his studio and disturbed him, not that we were a group whom he had invited to be there.

Guyton is currently working on a show for the Ludwig Museum. He has printed the same three black bars on numerous large linen canvases. He plans on stretching the paintings as tall as he can to deal with the enormity of the walls in the museum. 50 x 30 feet is the final dimension of the work.