WORK is pleased to announce the opening of Without, an exhibition of new work by Meleko Mokgosi and Matthew Watson. Mokgosi’s layered paintings on PMMA and Watson’s hyper-realist portraiture on copper are united by an examination of figurative surface as site of provocation. Without will also feature site-specific installation drawing and text by the two artists.

Meleko Mokgosi’s installation for Without can be formulated through the concept of a preposition. Mokgosi: “to explain the obvious; the meaning of a preposition, as something that governs a noun and or pronoun, and expressing a relation to another word or element in a clause – has been and remains seductive to me. That this word connotes spatiality qua temporality is key. Its possession of the capital necessary to define a substantive and indication of relationality is equally important.” Meleko Mokgosi has a B.A. in Studio Art from Williams College (‘07). He attended the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program (‘07-’08) and is currently enrolled at the UCLA Interdisciplinary Studio (MFA) program.

Seen through a materialist art historical context, Matthew Watson’s portraits for Without mimic Northern Renaissance aristocratic portraiture, right down to the pigments and the media used for their completion: powdered venetian glass, fir balsams, silver-point, copper plates. Watson’s portraits are meticulously built objects that fetishize supposed authenticity, emphasizing surface and method of production above all else. Matthew Watson has a B.A. in Studio Art from Williams College (‘04).