Eric Wesley's first New York exhibition is on view at Metro Pictures from December 14th through February 1st.
Wesley is producing, packaging, and distributing his own brand of black market tobacco products, "New Amsterdam," created from tobacco plants that he has cultivated in various locations. The main sculpture is a compact, operational system of cigarette-producing components, comprised of a germination unit, growing tables, and drying boxes for tobacco plants. One room is devoted to the rolling and packaging of the cigarettes, and to the promotional ephemera of Wesley's brand. The system is designed to be broken down, and its elements stored and transported within the back of a U-haul trailer, a sculpture of which is also on view.
Eric Wesley was born in 1973 in Los Angeles, where he currently lives and works. He received a BA from the University of California, Los Angeles. His work has been included in the recent exhibitions "Snapshot: New Art From Los Angeles," at the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, "Freestyle," at the Studio Museum in Harlem, in New York and the Santa Monica Museum of Art, in Santa Monica, California, and "Purloined" at Artists Space in New York. His recent exhibitions at Galleria Franco Noero in Torino, Italy and Meyer-Reigger Galerie in Karlsrue, Germany involved comparably complete productions processes — one a bomb factory cum paint store, the other a burrito factory.