The 365 Paintings of 2007
14 November – 22 December, 2008
Gallery 1
For this exhibition Andrea Way made one painting each day over the course of 2007. This body of work draws upon all of the processes and systems that Way has developed over a number of years in a highly spontaneous way. This unplanned project began for Way with a hit on the head. In mid-December 2006, she suffered a concussion which knocked her out of commission for the rest of the month. When she started painting again—on the first day of the New Year—things went quickly, and at the end of the day the piece looked done. The next morning she began another painting, and could see halfway through that it too would be finished in one day.
“To my surprise, a new pattern had begun: a painting a day. I decided to build on it. My work has always combined elements of structure and randomness: in my labor-intensive elaborations of patterns and systems, I allow myself the freedom to follow impulses as they arise.” (Way, 2008)
The group of paintings grew in this way. Each piece informed the next in a kind of visual diary of the development of Way’s thought. As she worked through January, she could see the entire year taking shape, and knew that she could give each month its own character.
Andrea Way’s works in are included in the collections of the Corcoran Gallery of Art (Washington, DC), the Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, DC), the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (Washington, DC), and the Phillips Collection (Washington, DC) October 3, 2007, Ink, Acrylic on Fabriano hotpress watercolor paper, 7 x 5 inches