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Biography |
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John Wehrle is a California based artist best known for his unique site-specific public artworks. His Projects include interior and exterior wall paintings as well as more elaborate installations that combine text, painting, ceramic tile or relief sculpture. Wehrle’s artworks grace libraries, banks, buildings, and freeway walls; many have become local landmarks. His work combines elements of allegory, myth and history into monumental, sometimes whimsical, narratives that engage the viewer’s peripheral vision. The completed artwork and the architectural structure fuse to form a work that resonates with its audience creating a unique sense of place. Over a thirty-year career he has produced commissions for corporate and civic clients, as well as individuals, often working in collaboration with architects, designers and communities to create highly visible works of art.
Born in San Antonio and raised all over Texas, Wehrle began his art career after a move to Waco in the fourth grade; compensating for his ball-playing deficiencies by drawing airplanes in his math workbook. Teen Theater classes at nearby Baylor University introduced him to a new world of space, time, and illusion. Under the direction of Paul Baker, Baylor Theater was renowned for producing avant-garde works, such as a Freudian version of Hamlet starring Burgess Merideth, directed by Charles Laughton. One of Wehrle’s classmates there was future visionary playwright Robert Wilson. After graduating from Texas Tech in Lubbock with a degree in fine art, Wehrle was commissioned a lieutenant in the signal corps. He was the leader of the first group of army artists sent in 1965 to paint the Vietnam War for the military history division. His paintings and drawings from Vietnam are part of the War Art collection in the Pentagon. Following that surreal experience he attended graduate school at Pratt lnstitute in Brooklyn. In 1967, Wehrle, collaborating with several other students, helped produce a multimedia performance, ALICE, that combined dancers, film. and slides in a specially constructed biomorphic theater. Wehrle moved to San Francisco in 1969, teaching at California College of Arts and Crafts, and making art. LAWS OF SCALE, a photographic book starring 40 stuffed trout in various situations, was a product of this period. Searching for ways to enlarge his artistic experience, he moved to Montana, built a log cabin, and began exploring painting again. Upon returning to the Bay Area he was hired under the CETA program and painted his first outdoor mural, EB 1942, at the De Young Museum in 1975. The second, Positively FOURTH STREET painted in collaboration with fellow artist, John Rampley, was likewise painted in the same staff parking lot. The dreamlike image of wildlife posing on an abandoned downtown freeway echoed the internal conflict the artist felt returning to modern civilization after his bucolic wilderness experience. In 1978 Wehrle was given a CAC grant to paint an exterior wall in Venice, CA. THE FALL OF ICARUS depicts a falling astronaut appearing on an abandoned desert drive-in screen before an audience of cowboys and angels. Commissions for walls in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other US cities followed. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s Wehrle painted a number of works for Biotechnology Firms, including RETURN OF JONAH, and PAGING DR. CRICK, which have lately been reproduced as images for books and websites on PCR and Genetics. In 1984 Wehrle was one of 10 artists chosen by the Olympic Committee to paint murals for Olympic Games held in Los Angeles. The resulting work, GALILEO, JUPITER, APOLLO, painted on the Santa Ana freeway retaining wall has since been seen by millions of people at speeds between zero to 60 miles per hour. A popular work, the mural was recently restored by the artist and conservator Donna Williams, with funding from LA’s Cultural Affairs Department. In 1986 Wehrle worked with Thom Mayne and Morphosis Architects to create KNOCKOUT. This time-lapse mural with its boxing/dance motif repeated on the orrery sundial sculpture is a prominent feature of Morphosis’ prizewinning design for Kate Mantilini Restaurant in Beverly Hills. In 1988 Wehrle established a Studio in Richmond CA and expanded his approach to wall painting creating Architectural Gateways and complete installations. REVISIONIST HISTORY, a freeway underpass mural for the City, includes two "RICHMOND" gateway arches. The overpass structure also functions as an entrance to the city. The supporting wall mural depicts Ohlone natives, Mexican vaqueros and startled contemporary residents all meeting at the neighborhood gas station. The wall painting continues the actual streetscape with illusionistic storefronts that contain local historical references. Other gateway murals followed including one for the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA at RIVERSIDE and a massive freeway overcrossing for the City of PINOLE, CA. One of the largest works was the 24,000 sq. ft. CENTURY XING that uses architectural relief and painting to redefine the Railroad Bridge and BART crossing structures in downtown Richmond. A fan of Magdalenian Cave Art, Renaissance illusionistic rooms, Kurt Scwitter’s Merzbau and the ceilings of Tiepolo, Wehrle has created several complex interior works that use the entire space to form a total visual experience. WORDS FLY AWAY, using words and images to cover walls floor and ceilings, transforms the Ocean View Library in San Francisco into a Literary Lascaux. SCRIBES, installed throughout the Mid-Valley Public Library in Los Angeles features cut out figures and text; a flow of scribes installing literary quotes throughout the interior space and flying out the painted sky ceiling. This work was given an outstanding achievement award by the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Division in 1997. Wehrle continues to work with a variety of materials creating works that are imaginative, playful and unique. A few other projects are: LAS BRISAS AND PUMP JACKS, interior murals for Valencia Town Center, CENTENNIAL a 5 x 53' ceramic tile mural created for Bakersfield’s hundredth anniversary, RACETRACK a series of carved and painted relief horses on the side of the Thoroughbred Building in Emeryville, CROSSROADS, A year-long collaboration with fellow muralists Daniel Galvez and John Pugh and HOSES AND LADDERS, a ceramic tile mural and carved reliefs for Fire Station 83 in Encino, CA. |
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Telephone: (510) 234-0645 © This entire website is copyright protected by John Wehrle
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