Andrew Jeffrey Wright. Andrew Jeffrey Wright’s Money

About

AJW makes all types of artworks, and communicates his diverse practice through zines. One of my favourites is called “Labs With Abs”, but that is for another show. In this exhibition we have one of his bodies of work, that has appeared in his zines over the years as well; photos of money. And not just any money!  “Andrew Jeffrey Wright’s Money”, as in all the cash he has at the time.

Spoofing the genre of braggy money photos where 100s or at least 20s are spread in huge piles, spell out names, fan out around guns or drugs or ladies, these photos mostly have 1s and 5s and some 10s, no guns and drugs, sometimes a lady, and, like, cats and trees. An underground artist who is well known by artists but never achieved commercial success in the same way as many of his peers, AJW has been taking photos for maybe 15 years that capture in this bizarre way a bit of what being a struggling artist looks like.

Maybe he DJs a party and there is a photo with about $340, maybe he has $93 and a pizza, maybe he is skint and has $7.25 on an ottoman. Who knows what he did to get over $800 in his underwear. The works are dated and it looks like 2010 was a good year. Why does it feel so subversive to have your bank balance on view? To be a cash only person without a bank balance actually?  It feels…dangerous!

This exhibition is accompanied by a catalogue collecting all of AJW’s money works, released by Paul Bright this fall. An early artist edition of the book will be available during the run of the show and we will let you know once we schedule a book signing and book release event. Books and photos in the exhibition are cash only, so bring cash.