Overview

New York Gallery

 

Gay Outlaw’s work in photography and sculpture explores form through structure, pattern, and translation. Her process often begins with a photograph. Carrying a camera wherever she goes, she shoots anything that catches her eye. Once the film is developed, forms that would otherwise go unnoticed are revealed in the juxtaposition or cropping of mundane objects.

 

Outlaw distills the shape or pattern and re-works it in a variety of media: rubber, cardboard, vinyl, wood, glass. Everyday material manipulated with considerable labor and skill results in complicated formality. Structural complexity leads to optical complexity. Within each work, familiar materials and unfamiliar forms are perfectly integrated, tweaking perception and denying you the comfort of trusting the veracity of your experience.

 

From piece to piece, each re-thinking of the original form leads to another re-conception. Each shift in scale, material or dimension is made with such sensitivity and consideration that no matter how extreme or unexpected, it seems logical, even inevitable.

 

Gay Outlaw was born in Mobile, Alabama, and lives and works in San Francisco. She has had solo exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Art, University of California Long Beach, and Mills College Art Museum. She has been included in group shows at the Berkeley Art Museum; the Bronx Museum; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles; the University of California, Los Angeles; California College of Arts; and the Sculpture Center in New York.

Works
  • Gay Outlaw Impermeable II, 2004 vinyl, thread 10 x 10 x 118 inches
    Gay Outlaw
    Impermeable II, 2004
    vinyl, thread
    10 x 10 x 118 inches
  • Gay Outlaw Three-legged Inversion (Version One), 2005 cardboard, paper, glue 34 x 57 x 40 inches 86.4 x 144.8 x 101.6 cms
    Gay Outlaw
    Three-legged Inversion (Version One), 2005
    cardboard, paper, glue
    34 x 57 x 40 inches
    86.4 x 144.8 x 101.6 cms
  • Gay Outlaw Three-legged Inversion (Version Two), 2005 cardboard, paper, glue 34 x 57 x 40 inches 86.4 x 144.8 x 101.6 cms
    Gay Outlaw
    Three-legged Inversion (Version Two), 2005
    cardboard, paper, glue
    34 x 57 x 40 inches
    86.4 x 144.8 x 101.6 cms
  • Gay Outlaw Three-legged Inversion (Version Three), 2005 cardboard, paper, glue 34 x 57 x 40 inches 86.4 x 144.8 x 101.6 cms
    Gay Outlaw
    Three-legged Inversion (Version Three), 2005
    cardboard, paper, glue
    34 x 57 x 40 inches
    86.4 x 144.8 x 101.6 cms
  • Gay Outlaw Three-legged Inversion (Version Four), 2005 cardboard, paper, glue 34 x 57 x 40 inches 86.4 x 144.8 x 101.6 cms
    Gay Outlaw
    Three-legged Inversion (Version Four), 2005
    cardboard, paper, glue
    34 x 57 x 40 inches
    86.4 x 144.8 x 101.6 cms
  • Gay Outlaw For Sale by Owner, 2006 corroplast, paper, glue 17 x 72 x 67 inches 43.2 x 182.9 x 170.2 cms
    Gay Outlaw
    For Sale by Owner, 2006
    corroplast, paper, glue
    17 x 72 x 67 inches
    43.2 x 182.9 x 170.2 cms
  • Gay Outlaw The PLB, 2006 wood 30.5 x 55 x 51 inches 77.5 x 139.7 x 129.5 cms
    Gay Outlaw
    The PLB, 2006
    wood
    30.5 x 55 x 51 inches
    77.5 x 139.7 x 129.5 cms
  • Gay Outlaw Camo Cube (Positive), 2005 plastic, paper, glue 16 x 16 x 16 inches 40.6 x 40.6 x 40.6 cms
    Gay Outlaw
    Camo Cube (Positive), 2005
    plastic, paper, glue
    16 x 16 x 16 inches
    40.6 x 40.6 x 40.6 cms
  • Gay Outlaw Camo Cube (Negative), 2005 plastic, paper, glue 16 x 16 x 16 inches 40.6 x 40.6 x 40.6 cms
    Gay Outlaw
    Camo Cube (Negative), 2005
    plastic, paper, glue
    16 x 16 x 16 inches
    40.6 x 40.6 x 40.6 cms
  • Gay Outlaw Camo Cube (Red), 2006 paper, plastic, glue 16 x 16 x 16 inches 40.6 x 40.6 x 40.6 cms
    Gay Outlaw
    Camo Cube (Red), 2006
    paper, plastic, glue
    16 x 16 x 16 inches
    40.6 x 40.6 x 40.6 cms
  • Gay Outlaw Camo Cube (Yellow), 2006 paper, plastic, glue 16 x 16 x 16 inches 40.6 x 40.6 x 40.6 cms
    Gay Outlaw
    Camo Cube (Yellow), 2006
    paper, plastic, glue
    16 x 16 x 16 inches
    40.6 x 40.6 x 40.6 cms
  • Gay Outlaw Camo Cube (Blue), 2006 paper, plastic, glue 16 x 16 x 16 inches 40.6 x 40.6 x 40.6 cms
    Gay Outlaw
    Camo Cube (Blue), 2006
    paper, plastic, glue
    16 x 16 x 16 inches
    40.6 x 40.6 x 40.6 cms
  • Gay Outlaw Life of a Cube, 2005 mirrored glass 6.5 x 61 x 51.5 inches
    Gay Outlaw
    Life of a Cube, 2005
    mirrored glass
    6.5 x 61 x 51.5 inches