Ideal Glass Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of recent works on paper by Swedish born collagist and mural artist Sebastian Wahl. Using labor-intensive hand-collage techniques Wahl’s works on paper often harmonize concentric composition strategies with elements of landscape and narrative. Familiar imagery from pop culture, religious iconography, organic forms, and assorted psychedelia are remixed into mandala-esque designs from which topographies emerge with the addition of the human figure. Unexpected referential juxtapositions and playful shifts of content and scale create a viewing experience that is at once disorienting and contemplative. Influenced equally by street art and art-historical disciplines such as surrealism, echoes of Hieronymus Boschʼs famous triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights can also be seen in Wahlʼs work, from which the exhibit borrows and subsequently re-contextualizes its title. Unlike many contemporary collage artists Wahlʼs astonishingly detailed works are executed without digital processes. A resin-coating technique he developed in 2006 lends a three-dimensional quality and an illuminating texture to each hand-constructed composition. Wahl’s studio practice is often extended into the public realm, activating urban environments with large-scale murals. A former graffiti artist, Wahl will transform the Ideal Glass Gallery exterior, a 30’ x 15’ wheatpaste encrusted panel, with a new, site-specific collage mural, to be executed in the first two weeks of September. Sebastian Wahl has exhibited with MicroCosm Gallery, NYC, and his work is represented in private collections in New York, Los Angeles, Geneva and Stockholm. images below from the opening event, which featured a musical performance by Ben Taylor more information at www.sebastianwahl.com