Every picture tells a story, and for artist Glenn Waggner, it’s a magical one, merging the real world with a sense of wit and wonder. Working in oil, Waggner creates resonant, meaningful figurative works that soar with imagination and devote themselves to indelible detail.
Waggner is both an architecht and an artist, and as such, it is perhaps unsurprising that he says he is “inspired by cities and mostly urban environments. A few times I have been in certain places where I had the feeling that everything was perfect. That’s what I want to paint.”
When he first began his journey as an artist he says he “started out painting twisting buildings at impossible angles. The work evolved into a more realistic portrayal while becoming more abstracted and looser. He adds that “Over time, the lighting and tones have become a little more surreal, like the lighting that occurs during an eclipse or seen in dreams.”
Make no mistake, Waggner’s worlds have that special hint of the magical that transforms even the most recognizable scene of getting morning coffee at a stand or hailing a taxi. He works in oils exclusively and finds that he plans to keep that medium as his first choice for creation.
“I switched to acrylics for a short time, and while I found the colors were the same, acrylics dried way too fast for me. I like to blend the paint in layers to give it a richness,” he points out.
Thematically, he says he is moving toward a change, however. “I am heading towards a more abstracted, expressionistic style. Not abstract expressionism, but more of a disruption of images.”
While he is currently exhibiting a solo exhibition at Diversions Fine Arts Gallery, he will also be exhibiting at the Brewery Artwalk in November, where he has shown for ten years; and returning to DFA for an exhibition in a December group show.
He is also looking forward to building a new body of work for future shows, and regardless of the changes he is planning in his work thematically, he will always tell wonderful stories. Asked what comes first, the story-making or the visual art, he says “The visuals almost always come first. The narrative develops naturally during creation. I also like to have fun with titles.”
Above: Waggner uses a skateboard for a canvas for his “Mall Grip;” detail of same; a look at “Girl Times Three.”
Waggner adds that “I love it when people see my work and [I can] watch it trigger memories or a narrative, many times completely different from what I see or intend.”
Certainly in his current exhibition, there are a wide range of pieces that could and do evoke memories and stories in the viewer, such as a stunning, panoramic take on LA’s Dingbat architecture; another such dimensional piece depicting a stunning view of the Strand beach walk, sea and sky…
…and even a simple and warmly recognizable image of a surf-board-carrying youth, holding his iPhone as he does what the title suggests, “Texting in Sick” in order to catch a wave.
There are orange clad monks in meditation, a dark car on a rain-slick road, a mustard-yellow train engine chugging on, and even a lovely portrait of the Broad Museum in DTLA.
Take a peak at these and other examples of Waggner’s bountiful, beautiful slice-of-life visual stories in Golden Days, now at Diversions Fine Arts Gallery located at 1069 N. Aviation Blvd. in Redondo Beach through October 4th.
- Genie Davis; photos courtesy of the artist and Davis