Edward Walton Wilcox - New Work April 25, 2009

Merry Karnowsky Gallery is proud to
present a solo exhibition by artist
Edward Walton Wilcox. Wilcox’s sepia-
toned gothic paintings and Medieval-
style altarpieces merge classical
technique with modern perception.
Wilcox’s haunting paintings of young
blond girls and landscapes of beauty
and impeding disaster are seeped in
symbolic context. Warm umbers
accentuated with subtle flesh tones are
achieved through a series of burnishing
and glazing techniques, giving the work a shadowy depth seldom seen since the Illuminists of
the 1800’s.
While Wilcox’s paintings reference the highly romanticized past of previous centuries, his
constructions evoke religious iconography dating back to the beginning of mankind’s search for
salvation. A carved wooden altarpiece of Noah’s Ark includes sea dragons and black birds
circling its gothic spires. The back room of the exhibition is transformed into a snowy winter’s day,
with a full-size wagon carrying a simple wooden coffin.
The artist explains, “My work is a moral critique of a world attempting to shroud itself in beauty
and diversion in the midst of its own collapse. My intention is for the work to have a preternatural
effect on the viewer; evoking at times a sense of awe, terror, insignificance, romantic sensuality,
allusions to our self-destructive nature, the temporal nature of beauty and life, and the decay of
the material world as a constant of which we are always aware.”
Originally from West Palm Beach, Florida, Wilcox earned a BFA in Painting with high honors from
the University of Florida, where he also received the Presidential Award for Excellence in the Arts.
Wilcox’s work has shown in California, New York, Florida, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, and has
appeared in publications such as The LA Times, Juxtapoz, Coagula Art Journal and FLAUNT
Magazine.