Will Kurtz‘s paper sculptures bring ordinary New Yorkers to life. Extra Fucking Ordinary is Will Kurtz’s debut exhibition at the Mike Weiss Gallery.’The show consists of life size figural sculptures constructed of collaged torn sheets of newspaper, wood, wire, screws, tape and everyday objects which depict the characters captured by Kurtz’s iPhone camera lens. Utilizing the observing eye of a curious urban voyeur, Kurtz spends large portions of his days combing the streets of New York for his subjects, which are later transformed into sincere and amusing life-size sculptures. It is not the subjects’ aesthetic appeal that draws Kurtz as much as their essence and strong representation of the multitude of prototypes that typify New York City: from an old married couple and endearingly eccentric dog owners to curmudgeonly middle-aged smokers.
Kurtz’s sculptures openly reference real people engaged in real scenarios, be it posing for group shots at a tourist attraction, walking their dog, awkwardly changing their clothes or reluctantly sweeping the floors. Kurtz holds an admiringly holds a magnifying glass to the genre of subjects and scenes that are commonly overlooked. The subjects collectively present a candid and unapologetic mosaic of New Yorkers in their blunt, colorful, borderline-manic ways made of the same papers they read in coffee shops and subways during their morning commute.’
