Almine Rech New York is pleased to present 10 new works by the artist Wes Lang. This is Lang's third solo exhibition with the gallery, on view through February 5, 2022.

“The skull is always present because I’m obsessed with my own death,” says Wes Lang of the memento-mori like motif that has permeated his work since the 1970s when, in elementary school, he first developed a habitual tendency to doodle skulls. “I’m always thinking about death and trying to be accepting of it. I don’t want to paint myself , the skull is a stand in for that. I’ve got a skull, I just can’t see it.” And to clarify, this desire to mull on the temporal nature of life is not meant to inspire hopelessness but rather—like the monks who practice maranasati, or ‘death awareness’  —such contemplation aims to dissolve the ego’s stranglehold, filling life with abundance and gratitude. To Lang, it’s “a constant reminder to myself and the viewers to stay present and to do everything you possibly can to move your life forward in a positive direction while you’ve got the chance to do it,” he says. “It’s gone before you know it. It really is.”