SPENT: Episode Two | Walter Price

Walter Price’s paintings may present as loose, instinctive, and immediate, but behind them is a practice built on discipline, repetition, and consistency. 

In this conversation, Walter sits down with Ajay Kurian to talk about building a life around making work and what it means to remain committed to the process. Together they discuss ambition, routine, competition, and the challenge of continuing to evolve without becoming attached to outcomes.

Walter reflects on making small paintings when everyone told him to scale up, embracing experimentation over certainty, and treating limitations as opportunities rather than obstacles. Again and again, he returns to the same idea: growth comes from pushing toward discomfort instead of away from it.

Walter describes creativity as something active - a practice of showing up, staying curious, and refusing to get comfortable.

At one point, Walter says he doesn’t want the cheers. He wants the boos.

Not because he’s interested in proving people wrong, but because he understands what keeps him moving: there is always another level to reach.

Hosted by Ajay KurianEdited by Peter GroppeProduced by NewCrits 

More about Walter Price:

https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/walter-price

00:00 — Intro

04:15 — Growing Up

08:40 — Early Ideas About Becoming an Artist

13:25 — Consistency vs Inspiration

18:50 — Small Paintings and Ignoring Expectations

24:30 — Wanting the Boos, Not the Cheers

29:15 — Ambition, Restlessness, and Staying Hungry

34:10 — Experimentation as Practice

39:20 — Developing Taste and Trusting Instinct

44:45 — Limitations as Opportunity

49:30 — Growth Through Discomfort

55:10 — Routine, Repetition, and Showing Up

1:00:45 — Success, Satisfaction, and What Comes Next

1:06:20 — Curiosity as a Long-Term Practice

1:10:00 — Outro

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