Rick Wester Fine Art is pleased to announce It's Not You, the first solo exhibition in New York by painter and photographer Allison L. Wade. The exhibition will feature recent additions to the artist's highly followed series on social networks, Break-Up Texts. The paintings and photographs feature all or portions of text messages sent and received by the artist during dissolving personal relationships, exploring the fundamental issues of personal communication in this age of instant messaging and 140 character diaries. Decidedly anti-romantic, sardonic and virtually tragic, the painted messages float above backgrounds of intense color, either garish or plain, or against a backdrop of psychedelic swirls in an implied messiness of psychological complexity. The photographic works combine text message excerpts with color print test patterns, creating tension between the deeply personal words and the clearly empirical nature of the backgrounds. Where text messages, in their dissociated candor, distill the written word’s emotional value, the color test patterns equally strip away the evocative nature of color. The emotional range of the work stretches from boredom and technology induced ennui to mockery and appalled surprise: Sorry I have been out of touch this week. There was a snow storm and I have been watching movies; Thanks for your consideration in wasting my time; and YOU HAVE SABOTAGED US are a few examples of the missives portrayed. Wade’s installations address the dichotomy inherent in technology that allows for human contact but can also negate it.

Break-Up Texts had its premiere at PULSE Miami in 2013 and immediately, images of the work became the most posted from the fair on Twitter and Instagram. Other blog posts have garnered tens of thousands of views and shares - and for good reason. Wade has taken the most unexceptional form of communication and made art that allows one element of the content to represent her own impulses and reactions while using forms and colors to contrast the intimacy of the literal meaning of her words. She creates conflict that is a mirror for her audience to find themselves in.

The paintings are displayed individually and in configurations of three to six works each. While Wade may use the same text in different paintings, they are never duplicated in size and color scheme so each is unique. The photographs are released in 30 x 40 inch chromogenic prints in editions of five each.

Allison L. Wade has been an Assistant Professor of Photography at the Fashion Institute of Technology since 2008 and previously taught at Parsons School of Design and the Austin Museum of Art. She holds an MFA in Photography from Cornell University. She has been the recipient of grants from the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; F.I.T./SUNY, NY; and the Cornell Council for the Arts.

All works © 2015, Allison L. Wade.