Once, with a blow of his [Tiresias] stick, he had disturbed two large snakes mating in the green forest, and, marvellous to tell, he was changed from a man to a woman, and lived as such for seven years. In the eighth year he saw the same snakes again and said ‘Since there is such power in plaguing you that it changes the giver of a blow to the opposite sex, I will strike you again, now.’ [S]he struck the snakes and regained his former shape, and returned to the sex he was born with.

        -Ovid’s Metamorphosis

12.26 is pleased to present Two Snakes, an exhibition of new works by Dallas-born and London-based artist Gray Wielebinski. Considering the myth of Tiresias and the two snakes, Wielebinski confronts various forms that are heavily infused with machismo and western ideas of masculinity. Iconography such as snakes, baseball cards, men’s jeans and a motorcycle vest pervade the gallery walls. Through destruction and alteration, the artist deflates and transforms (both physically and metaphorically) each form’s original purpose.

While the artist’s work is steeped in masculinity, concurrently there are feminine ideas which act as a common thread running throughout. This acts as a physical thread that the artist is pulling at. This pulling creates tension between the feminine and masculine world and within that tension, is where Wielebinski’s work exists.

Gray Wielebinski (b.1991) received their MFA from The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL, London, UK in 2018. They have shown in Europe, Asia and the United States and have work in the collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) Library & Archives and Pomona College Museum of Art. Notably they will have a solo show with Hales Gallery, London next year. Two Snakes is the artist’s first solo exhibition in Texas