David B. Smith Gallery is pleased to announce Denver-based artist Joel Swanson’s third solo exhibition with the gallery, Eight-and-a-Half-by-Eleven.

Recognized as both ubiquitous yet shaped by systems of class and privilege, language’s unwavering written and spoken rules are inevitably internalized in the individual. From youth, the weight of the written word against the empty page shapes thought patterns and processes as it rigidly defines correctness. The blankness of the empty page, seemingly innocuous and devoid of content, Swanson views as possessing an invisible, rigid power that ultimately defines the underlying structure of free choice.

Throughout the Main Gallery, Swanson explores the tools, structures, and technologies of literacy. Using unconventional media including pink erasers and highlighter fluid, Swanson deconstructs the materiality of language used within the primary education of English.

Eight-and-a-Half-by-Eleven uses abstraction and composition to discuss language without the actual use of language. Without a single alphanumeric character, Swanson delves into the psychology of language and learning, incorporating autobiographical elements into what amounts to a critique of default truth as it pertains to language.