Blair Thurman's Racing-Inspired Sculptures and Paintings at Peres Projects Berlin

Blair Thurman's exhibition 'Exquisite Course' at Peres Projects in Berlin ran from 16 November to 21 December 2018, featuring hybrid works that blend painting and sculpture with racing circuit aesthetics. The Louisiana-born artist creates wall-mounted constructions using acrylic paint on carved wood, evoking Formula One tracks through shapes like stretched ovals and serpentine curves. Specific works include 'Bacardi Circuit' (2018), which incorporates the bat logo from Cuban rum, and 'Crazy 8' (2018), whose black numeral recalls Scalextric sets while its Lotus green and white colors nod to racer Jim Clark. 'Mr. Salty' (2018) references Nabisco pretzel twists as a fictional circuit, and the title piece 'Exquisite Course' (2018) plays on the Surrealist 'exquisite corpse' game with a track outline on lurid yellow Plexiglas. Thurman's palette employs Pop tones like acid-green and pink, seen in 'Fuel Cell' (2018), and silver spraypaint reminiscent of garage tinkering, as in 'Norway or the Highway' (2017), which may allude to Norway's planned $47-billion high-speed motorway. Neon works like 'Gallery Go Round 2' (2018) feature tangerine-glowing glass tubing shaped like a paddock gate, casting watery reflections. Influences include Hot Wheels model cars, developed by industrial designer Elliot Handler and Harry Bentley Bradley of General Motors, echoing the exhilaration of childhood toy cars. The exhibition was reviewed in the January & February 2019 issue of ArtReview.