This February, following a major 2023 – 24 museum survey and an acclaimed public commission, Charles Gaines returns to his hometown of Los Angeles to present a new exhibition of his signature Plexiglas works at Hauser & Wirth West Hollywood—the most elaborate treatment yet of his ongoing Numbers and Trees series, first conceived by the artist in 1987. Consisting of nine largescale triptychs and a suite of new watercolor diptychs, all works are based on photographs of baobab trees the artist shot during a trip to Tanzania in 2023. For nearly six decades, pioneering conceptual artist Gaines has used systems to create series of works that mine the complex relationship between perception and meaning.
Trees have been a central motif in Gaines’ practice since the 1970s, when he first began plotting their forms through systems of numbered grids in the Walnut Tree Orchard series (1975 – 2014). By converting the tree form into a gridded geometry, Gaines devised a distinctive process for charting and comparing differences. This approach invited viewers into the gap between what things appear to be and what they mean, while also challenging the dominance of subjectivity in artistic expression. Gaines’ argument—that aesthetic experience is not transcendent but rather firmly rooted in and shaped by culture—has broadened the conversation about art history and influenced generations of artists.
In this iteration of Numbers and Trees, Gaines implements a combination of systems never before brought together. The silhouetted baobab tree is meticulously transformed through a rigorous set of self-determined rules and procedures. Each tree is assigned a distinctive color and number sequence, creating layers of astonishingly detailed visual information within and on the planes of the Plexiglas box. For the first time, in half of the works, the back panel depicts the sequential progression of trees amid an enlarged detail of the tree crown, an application the artist refers to as an ‘explosion.’ This process breaks down his original photographic composition into individual cells which collectively challenge our perception and thwart conventional interpretation. The grandeur of the baobab—revered as the ‘tree of life’—mirrors the magnificence of Gaines’ process, where proliferating cells of color radiate in intricate branch-like patterns, each seeming to emerge from the unique form of every tree.
With Numbers and Trees, The Tanzania Baobabs, Charles Gaines reflects on his trip to Tanzania and the country’s historical context, particularly in relation to the colonial enterprise, slave trade and personal identity. However, a profound ambiguity exists in the relationship between the ancient trees he photographed on that sojourn—these natural witnesses to social and evolutionary epochs—and the deliberate, systematic breakdown of their image. This gap, like the space between the Plexiglas panels of each work, invites the viewer to interpret different layers of possible meaning. As Gaines notes, “What you bring to the image, adds to the image.”
Accompanying the Plexiglas works on view is an intimate series of watercolors, each composed of tiny painted cells that take the shape of a tree’s specific form. As this series progresses, its overlapping tree forms create a cacophony of cells and varied hues that both blur and retain each baobab tree’s distinct character. Gaines succeeds in cataloging minute yet essential differences between things, while also mapping the very process through which he does so in a deep but intentionally inconclusive excavation of meaning.
Will you be checking out Charles Gaines’ new Numbers and Trees exhibition at Hauser & Wirth?
