Wendell Gladstone is a painter who works with acrylic and gesso to create texturally rich canvases. Applying paint like a collagist, Gladstone works in his signature palette of warm ochres and ambers, pastel greens and blush pinks to craft enticing dreamscapes. Pre-Raphaelite figures with long flowing hair populate his paintings, languishing in fields or peering through windows. The works possess a deep sense of mysticism and romanticism with emotive signifiers such as melting candles, fallen petals and tear droplets continually surfacing. Influences from Art Nouveau and the Pre-Raphaelites filter into his illustrative register and there’s an undeniable magical realist strain within his oeuvre. His characters could easily be plucked from the pages of an Angela Carter or a Gabriel García Márquez’s novel.Surreal paintings emerge from this rich mixing of sources, leading viewers down the various psychological turns within Gladstone’s sombre yet alluring realm. 

Public Gallery

Los Angeles

New York City

Art New York

London

Shulamit Gallery

Roberts Projects

The Dot Project

Field Projects

Torrance

Torrance Art Museum

Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (Lace)

Las Vegas

Las Vegas Art Museum

Kansas City

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

Austin

The Contemporary Austin

Hammer Museum

San Diego

Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Wendell Gladstone

A Face Drawn in the Sand at the Edge of the Sea

Whispers to You

Then, Now, Warmth Hereafter

Drawn Together

Stemming the Tide

Toucan

Putting Out Fires