This presentation is the seventh exhibition iteration of an ongoing project titled “The Ground,” the primary impulse of which is exchange. Purtill gives “grounds” (a support/surface on which to make a painting or drawing) to fellow artists as a gift. This has been the basis and ethos of Purtill’s artwork for the past two decades. He says of his project, “I make a ground with a specific person constantly in mind, which I then offer to them as a way to show I’ve dedicated time thinking about them. These are people I love. This is the purpose of the exchange.” More often than not, the person gifted the ground will choose to do something with it. And from time to time, exhibitions are composed with the resulting artworks, which the artists have chosen to return — or exchange — for the occasion. [Excerpt from the gallery press release]
Conny Purtill (b. 1969, Phoenix, AZ) is an artist and book designer who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Purtill has exhibited most recently at Fondazione Giuliani, Rome; CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco; Florence Loewy, Paris; Ecole D’art et de Design, Geneva; Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis; Vox Populi and Temple Gallery at Tyler School of Art, Temple University, both in Philadelphia. Select performances have been presented at Renwick Gallery, New York; Centre Pompidou, Paris; and WIELS, Brussels. He is represented by Adams and Ollman.
© Martina Simeti, 2025
