This week we welcome Aaron Williams, a painter based in Queens who explores the space between representation and abstraction. He holds an undergraduate degree from the Maine College of Art, and an MFA from Rutgers University.
WIlliams’ paintings include bits of deconstructed screen-printed images. While the specificity of the paintings’ photographic source material is often lost, the DNA of the images remains. Combining these photographic parts with overtly abstract elements, the paintings become amalgams of disparate languages, abstractions found through a process of discovery.
He has had solo exhibitions at Max Protetch, Baumgartner Gallery and Mulherin + Pollard galleries in New York, as well as LaMontagne Gallery in Boston. His most recent solo project was with MEN Gallery in Brooklyn. Williams’ work has been featured in several group exhibitions in the U.S., including the Portland Museum of Art in Maine, Memphis Social in Tennessee and New York’s Denny Gallery and Lu Magnus Gallery.
“My recent paintings are made using screen printing, pouring and brushwork. The screens that I use contain images of water and bloody depictions from horror films. They’ve become much like any mark making tool, capable of clarity but increasingly I use them gesturally, cultivating the imperfections and idiosyncrasies that occur through imperfect printing and surfaces,” he writes.
“I consider these paintings to be abstractions. The water images are unspecific and could represent many things; an ocean, tub, digital depiction, a sound wave or generated pattern. Their diffuse nature opens them up for meaning. The horror pictures are from the bloodiest film images I can find, full of drips and pours contained within halftone dots. Both types of screened images speak to painterly gesture, despite their static character. I make a mess of these paintings before something begins to make sense and then it’s often finished all at once. There’s a point in the process when idiosyncrasies take over and accidents dictate the course of the work. The finished painting represents the last decision made, usually a large gesture that stretches across the whole canvas. A final assertive act in a process of mistakes, creation through destruction.”
See more of William’s work on his website and Instagram.
See more of our Artist of the Week features here.
