It-finally-feels-like-winter greetings, collectors! It’s me, Jen, up in your inbox to introduce Walk and Talk, our newest edition by long-time 20x200 artist Helena Wurzel.
Walk and Talk is a celebration of everyday miracles: a bracing walk on a brisk day, the easy companionship of close friends who live close by, the intimacy and comfort of time spent with our familiars, besties, babies and beasts included.
Wurzel’s reflections on friendship and the female form are bright lights in 20x200’s catalog. The warmth of her gaze—both inward and outward—and careful consideration of color, pattern, light, shadow and geometry are transporting and evocative. I can feel the soundtrack of tinny AM radio poolside in my bones, remember the rustle of magazines and the smell of their ink filling the air as the smooth pages spread out beneath my fingertips, and savor the relief of a entering a too-cold and blessedly deserted gallery on a hot summer day.
Walk and Talk crackles with the same familiarity, but heralds a different season both literally and figuratively, capturing Wurzel and friend mid-conversation in a decidedly different milieu. This moment feels both welcome and stolen, and the lives of its women a bit more hectic. The climate may be colder, but a quick pace and layers of colorful athleisure shield them from any sharp wind that might be blowing across the almost-frozen lake. Take the dog out, get some steps in, put the baby down for a nap AND catch up with your friend ‘round the corner? It might seem mundane subject matter, but Wurzel reminds us that these everyday days are what make us us.
We’ve released this edition to coincide with Wurzel’s solo exhibition—Snapshots— at Praise Shadows, a new(ish) Boston-area gallery with an ambitious program and an ethos that resonates with our own mission here at 20x200. (Go see it if you can!) The exhibition includes the original 48”x48” oil on canvas version of Walk and Talk along with many other recent works by Wurzel. In the gallery’s release for the show, they describe her work as ”akin to the snapshots that capture the fabric of a time, a place, a moment.” These snapshots are indeed glimpses into a world that is very much Wurzel’s own, but consider their intense familiarity a call to action. Everyone’s everyday is worthy of close observation and celebration, and that includes your own!
More work by Helena Wurzel
