Cameron Welch: Mosaics
[His work] is full of large, ambitious, brilliantly executed mosaics full of so many disparate cultural references, snarling faces and masks and intimations of violence that it can initially be hard to focus.[…] To say that he might have discovered his artistic destiny is putting it mildly.
— Roberta Smith, The New York Times
The inaugural monograph of multidisciplinary artist Cameron Welch presents a vivid, comprehensive look into a young artist’s practice. Welch’s work has straddled sculpture, collage, and textiles, but in early 2017, he shifted to mosaic as his primary medium. As a child, the artist was introduced to mosaic by his grandmother, an experience that has a lasting impact on the way he works the age-old medium to piece together disparate materials and histories. Welch treats mosaic as a physical manifestation of intertextuality, referring to the colliding contexts he unearths in the work as a kind of “infiltration.”
While Welch’s chosen medium evokes ancient traditions, the effect of his work is decidedly contemporary. His chaotic, jumbled compositions speak to the same anxiety felt in the Information Age, an era when unlimited information is available at the tap of a screen. Amidst the pictorial chaos of Welch’s mosaics, the figures who emerge range from familiar to foreign, comical to heroic. Frequently depicting himself and figures from his own life, Welch sheds light on unsung histories within the intricate topology of his creations. An incisive essay by Greek and Roman Art scholar Alexis Belis helps readers contextualize Welch’s work within historical and contemporary creative practice.
[His work] is full of large, ambitious, brilliantly executed mosaics full of so many disparate cultural references, snarling faces and masks and intimations of violence that it can initially be hard to focus.[…] To say that he might have discovered his artistic destiny is putting it mildly.
— Roberta Smith, The New York Times
The inaugural monograph of multidisciplinary artist Cameron Welch presents a vivid, comprehensive look into a young artist’s practice. Welch’s work has straddled sculpture, collage, and textiles, but in early 2017, he shifted to mosaic as his primary medium. As a child, the artist was introduced to mosaic by his grandmother, an experience that has a lasting impact on the way he works the age-old medium to piece together disparate materials and histories. Welch treats mosaic as a physical manifestation of intertextuality, referring to the colliding contexts he unearths in the work as a kind of “infiltration.”
While Welch’s chosen medium evokes ancient traditions, the effect of his work is decidedly contemporary. His chaotic, jumbled compositions speak to the same anxiety felt in the Information Age, an era when unlimited information is available at the tap of a screen. Amidst the pictorial chaos of Welch’s mosaics, the figures who emerge range from familiar to foreign, comical to heroic. Frequently depicting himself and figures from his own life, Welch sheds light on unsung histories within the intricate topology of his creations. An incisive essay by Greek and Roman Art scholar Alexis Belis helps readers contextualize Welch’s work within historical and contemporary creative practice.
[His work] is full of large, ambitious, brilliantly executed mosaics full of so many disparate cultural references, snarling faces and masks and intimations of violence that it can initially be hard to focus.[…] To say that he might have discovered his artistic destiny is putting it mildly.
— Roberta Smith, The New York Times
The inaugural monograph of multidisciplinary artist Cameron Welch presents a vivid, comprehensive look into a young artist’s practice. Welch’s work has straddled sculpture, collage, and textiles, but in early 2017, he shifted to mosaic as his primary medium. As a child, the artist was introduced to mosaic by his grandmother, an experience that has a lasting impact on the way he works the age-old medium to piece together disparate materials and histories. Welch treats mosaic as a physical manifestation of intertextuality, referring to the colliding contexts he unearths in the work as a kind of “infiltration.”
While Welch’s chosen medium evokes ancient traditions, the effect of his work is decidedly contemporary. His chaotic, jumbled compositions speak to the same anxiety felt in the Information Age, an era when unlimited information is available at the tap of a screen. Amidst the pictorial chaos of Welch’s mosaics, the figures who emerge range from familiar to foreign, comical to heroic. Frequently depicting himself and figures from his own life, Welch sheds light on unsung histories within the intricate topology of his creations. An incisive essay by Greek and Roman Art scholar Alexis Belis helps readers contextualize Welch’s work within historical and contemporary creative practice.
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Artwork by Cameron Welch
Text by Alexis Belis
Interview with Joel MeslerHardcover
10.5 x 13 inches
170 pages / 86 images
Trade ISBN: 9798890181077
Signed ISBN: 9798890181084Co-published with Yossi Milo
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Cameron Welch (b. 1990, Indianapolis, IN) has exhibited widely in the US and abroad, including at the KAdE Museum, the Netherlands and Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. His work is in the collection of the Museum of Art at the RISD, Providence, RI. In 2016, the artist was nominated for the Rema Hort Mann Foundation’s Emerging Artist Grant and received the inaugural One River School Emerging Art Award. His work has been featured in publications such as Vice, Hypebeast, and Forbes. Welch received his MFA from Columbia University. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.