Wesley Kimler, “Drawing”, color, charcoal on paper, 88″ x 58″/Photo: Gallery Victor
In case the rest of Chicago is wondering where Wesley Kimler is, he’s alive and well and hanging out outside the city at his lovingly named hillbilly homestead, Fox Lair Kite Factory, in Fairview, Michigan. Younger artists today may not be familiar with this longtime Chicago artist known for his Hunter S. Thompson-esque personality – he’s philosophical, direct, and known to be an unpredictable individual. Kimler is outspoken, uncouth, and, like the rest of us, aging. Age, however, hasn’t stopped this 71-year-old Chicago antihero from living and breathing his art.
I had the pleasure of speaking with Kimler in 2013. Back then, he was in his iconic Carroll Street studio, complete with screeching parrots, leaping foxes, and large, menacing paintings. Much has changed for the artist since then. Kimler spoke to me about his latest pieces at Gallery Victor and his work and role in the art world since we spoke over a decade ago. So what has this passionately political single father, fox daddy—for those of you who don’t know, Kimler is an ardent advocate for saving foxes and sanctuaries—been up to?
Wesley Kimler, “The Maven”, oil on canvas, 110″ x 120″/Photo: Gallery Victor
According to Kimler, a few exhibitions are planned, one in LA and one in the fall. “My daughter is moving out. I’m alone up here and I’m starting to paint properly again,” he says. Kimler is known for his gigantic, surrealist-abstract paintings and has been influenced by artists such as David Park, Roy De Forest and Joan Brown. His time and experiences in Afghanistan are also a lasting memory for him.
Of the works in the Victor Gallery, the most famous is “Drawing,” a black-and-white work in which Kimler pours graphite or charcoal to cover the seams. It is called a drawing because its gestural, figurative technique mimics the act of drawing. The black, organic, rounded form works well with the sharper, defined points of the paper background.
Wesley Kimler, “Figures”, oil on canvas, 36″ x 36″/Photo: Gallery Victor
Works like “Drawing” are just one of Kimler’s distinctive styles, and the other works, “The Maven” and “Figures,” feel like a preview of what’s to come. The artist tells me that the works on display at Gallery Victor on West Superior Street are just a few, and that he’s planning a larger exhibition next year. “I left the Chicago art world because I said everything I needed to say. I was there for years,” Kimler tells me. “Now it’s all water under the bridge. I don’t care. I don’t care,” he says. “My paintings are important to me, and I’m going to spend the rest of my life making the best paintings I can make. I think my best paintings are ahead of me, not behind me.”
Wesley Kimler’s work is on view at Gallery Victor, 300 West Superior. Another exhibition of Kimler’s work, “2032,” a collaboration with Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. Poet Laureate Mark Strand, is also on view in the Poetry Foundation’s recent exhibition, “A Bigger Table: Fifty Years of the Chicago Poetry Center,” through September 14, and includes poetry pamphlets that combine poetry with visual imagery and design.
