Austin Wells
New York, NY
Work 2025
20242023ArchiveEmailInstagram

Education
2020
BFA, Graphic Design
Purchase College, Purchase, NY


Slow, rhythmic dronings of my hometown of Monticello, the ruins of the resorts of the Catskill Mountains, the discarded and broken beer bottles, rusty chain-link fences gating off what seem to be abandoned, grassy lots, and deteriorating buildings with crumbling moulding and overgrown lawns; this is the environment that held me hostage and gave me comfort. It's within these things that I find introspection and meditation, and a way to approach my work. Through time, process, and thought, and the materiality of printmaking, bookmaking, and drawing, the ability to reveal the atmosphere of the ruins I called home manifests. At the core, my work is about the deterioration of memories and objects present in contemporary rural life in upstate New York, both in my romanticized nostalgia for home and the true deteriorating and ruinous nature of the things we leave behind with a history (albeit unknown); a true northern gothic.



Exhibitions, Fairs, & Publications
2021
now / present / current — Online Exhibition — Oranbeg Press
When Words Fail — Online Exhibition — Visionary Art Collective
Social Distance Gallery — Instagram — Online Thesis Exhibition

2020
BFA thesis exhibition — Purchase, NY
Handle With Care — 2021 Gallery, Purchase, NY
Zine Feast — Student Center, Purchase, NY
Submag Issue #72 — link

2019
Printfest — ICPNY, New York, NY
WPBID Art in Vacant Spaces — https://wpbid.com/content/art-public-places
Issue 1 Art fair — Purchase, NY
twenty.one — 1019a gallery, Purchase, NY
Art Among the Vines — Bashakill Vineyards, Wurtsboro, NY
Zine Feast — Student Center
Nature’s Beauty — 1019a gallery, Purchase, NY

2017
Art Among the Vines — Bashakill Vineyards, Wurstboro, NY


Handle With Care, 2020, Purchase, NY
Twenty.One, 2019, Purchase, NY
Schoolday
19" x 25"
Color pencil drawings collaged on paper
2025
Sadie
19" x 25"
Color pencil drawings collaged on paper
2025
You Can’t Go Back
19" x 25"
Color pencil drawings collaged on paper
2025
Ceiling Lamp
11" x 15"
Color pencil drawing collaged on paper
20Ride By
4" x 30"
Color pencil drawings collaged on paper
2025
Delmar
18" x 24"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2025Blueberry Bush
18" x 24"
Color pencil drawings collaged on paper
2025Dillon Road
18" x 24"
Color pencil drawings collaged on paper
2025Kinnebrook
19" x 25"
Color pencil drawings collaged on paper
2025Roadtrip Triptych
--"
Color pencil, gouache, and pen on collaged cardboard and paper
2025
The Kitchen Table II
18.5" x 29.5"
color pencil drawings collaged on paper
2024-2025

Empty Trailers
18" x 24"
color pencil drawings collaged on paper
2024

Rotting on 17B
18" x 48"
color pencil drawing collaged on paper
2024Two Smokers
18" x 24"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024The Martyr
18" x 28"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024Waiting
--"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024Debris
11" x 17"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024The Kitchen Table I
18" x 24"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024Self Portrait
9" x 12"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024Boarded Up
18.5" x 40"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024Weed Whacking
18" x 20"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024Posted
13" x 19"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024Lost Dog
18" x 24"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024Jeff’s Old House
18" x 24"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024Nana’s Surprise
18" x 20"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024House on Dillon Road
18" x 22"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024Debris
9.5" x 11"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2024Brown Shirt Quilt
60" x 80"
Found fabric appliqued on blanket
2024
On Old Liberty
8 x 10"
Color pencil on paper
2023

Dad’s Hat
8 x 10"
Color pencil on paper
2023

Yardwork
8" x 10"
Color pencil drawing on paper
2023Valley Cone
8" x 10"
Color pencil and graphite on collaged paper
2023Nana’s Table
8" x 10"
Color pencil drawing on collaged paper
2023
Just Down the Road
9" x 12"
watercolor, acrylic, and marker on canvas
2022
Moth on my Window
9" x 12"
watercolor, acrylic, and marker on canvas
2022

Brown Shirt Series
10" x 14"
watercolor, colored pencil, and graphite on paper
2021-2022I Am Trying To Remember
18" x 24"
Graphite on Paper
2021A House Not a Home
--"
Graphite on Paper
2021Along that Fence
18" x 47"
Graphite on Paper
2021Concrete Daisies
--"
Graphite on Paper
2021Hamilton Road House
23 x 31"
Graphite on Paper
2021Beachcomber
4" x 5.5"
Handbound book laser printed on washi paper
2021
Hunting Camp I
11" x 14"
Graphite on Paper
2021Hunting Camp II
11" x 14"
Graphite on Paper
2021Hunting Camp III
11" x 14"
Acrylic and Gouache on Canvas
2021Camp Out
36" x 48"
Acrylic and Watercolor on Canvas
2021Putting Air in the Tires
26" x 40"
Watercolor Silkscreen Monotype on Paper
2021

Burning the Nest
26" x 40"
Watercolor Silkscreen Monotype on Paper
2021Broken Plate
18" x 24"
Collaged Graphite and Watercolor on Paper
20215 Pointer
22" x 30"
Watercolor Silkscreen Monotype
2021Seashells
5.5" x 6"
Drypoint and Chine Colle on Paper
2021

Pond Skipper
--"
Graphite on Paper
2021Dad, the Car Won’t Start
--"
Watercolor Silkscreen Monotype on Collaged Paper
2021Picking the Car Up
--"
Graphite on Paper
2021Dropping the Car Off
--"
Monoprint and Watercolor on Paper
2021In the Back Field
44" x 30"
Silkscreen on Linen Patchwork Fabric
2021Still at the Thompson Square Lot
18" x 24"
Silkscreen on Newsprint Paper
2020-2021Mom’s Tomato Garden
--"
Acrylic and Watercolor on Paper
2021Dad’s Shed
--"
Acrylic and Watercolor on Paper
2021Janis, Our Old Neighbor
--"
Acrylic on Canvas
2021Janis
--"
Acrylic on Canvas
2021Andrew
--"
Acrylic on Canvas
2021Dillon Road Fence
--"
Monoprint on Paper
2021Monticello, A Northern Gothic
8.5 x 506" (Fully Open)
Digitally Illustrated Accordion Book

Living in Monticello is like living amongst ruins. Lining the streets are vacant buildings, sometimes barely together. On the edge of the Borscht Belt, it isn’t hard to see why; the days of the Concord and Kutsher’s are over. What remains is what I grew up in - the silent, small upstate New York town of working class inhabitants that live day to day, that glorious hey day behind them. Monticello: A Northern Gothic is a long, stream of consciousness based book chronicling my introspection in returning home and my memories surrounding it. Though meant to be produced as a long, accordion style, silkscreen printed book, it currently manifests as a digitally illustrated scroll (hopefully to be produced in the future).

2019-20

Worship of a Vacant Lot 
--"
Woodcut on Paper
2020







Hometown / Fences
--"
2 Silkscreen Printed Accordion Books
2020The Incident at Mr. Willy’s
--"
Reduction Linocut on Paper
202oDillon Park Fence
--"
Silkscreen on Canvas
2020The Sky has been Overcast Lately
9.5"  x 13"
Graphite on Paper
2020

Daisies at the Old Homestead
16"  x 6"
Embroidered Pillow
2020Deer House on Route 17
--"
Silkscreen and Ink on Dyed Canvas
2020

More than a Roadmap
36' x 8' 
Vinyl Banner Installation
2019Ghost Sighting
7.5"  x 11"
Material
2019


Forgotten Daisy
11"  x 15"
11"  x 30"
Material
2019
The Remnants
16"  x 20"
Material
2019
Seedless Grapes
48" x 9.625"
Material
2019
He Came to Me
N/A
Installation (Silkscreen on paper, Sweater, Scarf)
2019
No Trespassing
22"  x 90"
Silkcreen on Paper
2019
He Lies with Peaches
22"  x 30"
Silkscreen on Paper
2019
Chips
11 x 15"
Watercolor Silkscreen Monoprint
201925 Ghosts
4 x 6"
Laserjet Printed Book
2019
Recyclopedia
5 x 5"
Laserjet Printed Accordion Book
2019
Exhaustion and Exuberance
5" x 6.5"
Handsewn Laserjet printed Book
2019
Ghost in the Woods
8 x 10.5"
Handsewn Laserjet Print Book
2019
Secret Garden
5" x 5.5"
Letterpress Printed Book 
2018