Ad Paintings draws inspiration from the motif of repetition often seen in advertising and popular visual culture. Through these works, a critique of the idea of “home” emerges, engaging with elements that have deep yet often-forgotten histories in the Caribbean.  

 
 
 
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Drew Weech
Ad Paintings
Installation View 2

Drew Weech —

“Much of the work comes from conversations I used to have with my grandmother as a kid about the past. I learned a lot about the similarities and the differences from my childhood in the ‘90s to her childhood in the 1940s. This show really mines that history conceptually, and is very much a love-hate critique of how I miss home and how I’m learning to articulate that without putting it on a pedestal.”

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Drew Weech
Ad Painting 021621, 2021
Oil Stick and Flashe on Canvas
24 x 30 inches (60.96 x 76.2 cm)

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Drew Weech
Ad Painting 022421, 2021
Oil Stick and Flashe on Canvas
24 x 30 inches (60.96 x 76.2 cm)

Using mainly oil sticks and flashe paint, the artist intentionally evokes feelings of wheat-pasted street posters, referring to the repetition and overlap of cultural histories and practices that remain over many generations. 

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Drew Weech
Ad Painting 081920, 2020
Oil Stick and Graphite on Canvas
30 x 40 inches (76.2 x 101.6 cm)

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Drew Weech
Ad Painting (040421), 2021
Oil Stick and Flashe on Canvas
24 x 30 inches (60.96 x 72.5 cm)

Photo by Jodi Minnis

Drew Weech
Ad Paintings
Installation View 3

TERN_weech_ad-painting-020821_24x30_2021-web.jpg

Drew Weech
Ad Painting 020821, 2021
Oil Stick and Flashe on Canvas
24 x 30 inches (60.96 x 76.2 cm)

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Drew Weech
Ad Painting 062920, 2020
Oil Stick and Flashe on Canvas
16 x 20 inches (40.64 x 50.8 cm)

Weech situates the subject matter in relation to his Afro-Carribean roots: the painted interruption of torn paper and emblematic visual elements—such as palm trees and geographic coordinates— represent an urge to preserve a history that is often denied, sold or lost. 

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Drew Weech
Study (Item), 2019
Oil Stick and Paint Marker on Linen
12 x 16 inches (30.48 x 40.64 cm)

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Drew Weech
Ad Painting 051820, 2020
Oil Stick and Flashe on Canvas
12 x 16 inches (30.48 x 40.64 cm)

Photo by Jodi Minnis

Drew Weech
Study for Ad Painting with Gibbett, 2021
Oil Stick, Grease Pencil and Ink on Canvas
12 x 16 inches (30.48 x 40.64 cm)

 
 

 
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Drew Weech

Drew (b. 1984, Nassau, Bahamas) graduated from NSCAD University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada with a BDes in Interdisciplinary Design in 2011 and currently lives and works in New York. Weech explores, primarily through painting, various historical and contemporary themes such as the nude, vanitas and his own conflicted feelings about home.

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