Michael Williams (b. 1978, Doylestown, Pennsylvania) negotiates the long history of painting by consistently questioning—and often undoing—its major components. Challenging himself with an ever-evolving set of formal problems, he produces images that reflect modern complexity and contradiction. Recent works have been made using a variety of different materials and tools, including oil paint, collage, and airbrushes; some have been composed on a computer using Photoshop and a digital drawing pad before being inkjet-printed onto canvas. In the execution of his images Williams twists together a balance of offhanded gesture and careful compositional rigor, making decisions that keep his paintings willfully misoriented. As art historian Richard Shiff notes, “[Williams’s] art is infectious in causing others to ponder the importance—or not—of anything. It’s a start-all-over-again art for a start-all-over-again life.”
Bhabha Williams, a two-person exhibition of sculptures and works on paper by Huma Bhabha and paintings and drawings by Michael Williams, is on view at our Los Angeles gallery from January 21 through February 25, 2023. Williams has been the subject of solo and two-person exhibitions at the Power Station, Dallas (2022); LOK, the Kunstzone in the Lokremise, Kunstmuseum St.Gallen, Switzerland (2021); Le Consortium, Dijon, France (with Tobias Pils, 2017); Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (2017); Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal (2015); and Gallery Met, New York (2015). Recent group shows include .paint, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2020); Joe Bradley, Oscar Tuazon, Michael Williams, Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, Connecticut (2018); The Trick Brain, Aïshti Foundation, Beirut (2017); High Anxiety: New Acquisitions, Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2016); Artists and Poets, Secession, Vienna (2015); and The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014). His work is in the permanent collections of institutions including the Dallas Museum of Art; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal. Williams lives and works in Los Angeles.
Michael Williams
Higher Powers Command: Make a Painting for an Art Fair, 2021
oil on canvas
68 x 59 1/4 x 1 1/8 inches
(172.7 x 150.5 x 2.9 cm)
Michael Williams
Untitled Puzzle Drawing, 2021
pen, pencil, and collage on paper
11 x 8 1/2 inches
(27.9 x 21.6 cm)
framed:
13 1/2 x 11 x 1 1/2 inches
(34.3 x 27.9 x 3.8 cm)
Michael Williams
MPGA (3), 2020
oil and UV print on photo paper mounted on canvas
97 1/2 x 157 x 1 inches
(247.7 x 398.8 x 2.5 cm)
Michael Williams
Large HBO, 2018
enamel on canvas
68 x 84 1/8 x 1 1/8 inches
(172.7 x 213.7 x 2.9 cm)
Michael Williams
Truth About Painting 2, 2017
inkjet on canvas
128 x 84 3/4 inches
(325.1 x 215.3 cm)
Michael Williams
New Field, 2016
oil, acrylic, and inkjet on canvas
122 1/4 x 82 1/2 x 1 inches
(310.5 x 209.6 x 2.5 cm)
Michael Williams
Yoga Online Series, 2014
collage and pen on paper
suite of 26 drawings
each:
11 1/2 x 8 1/2 inches
(29.2 x 21.6 cm)
Detail view
Michael Williams
New File, 2014
inkjet on canvas
108 5/8 x 83 1/8 x 1 3/8 inches
(276 x 211 x 3.5 cm)
Michael Williams
Honk if You Don't Exist, 2013
inkjet and airbrush on canvas
100 1/4 x 80 3/4 inches
(254.6 x 205.1 cm)
Michael Williams
We'd Better Get My Prius, 2013
inkjet and airbrush on canvas
96 x 75 7/8 inches
(243.8 x 192.7 cm)
Michael Williams
Everything Bagel, 2011
oil and airbrush on canvas
68 x 52 inches
(172.7 x 132.1 cm)
Michael Williams
Surf n' Turf, 2008
oil on canvas
40 x 60 inches
(101.6 x 152.4 cm)
Bill Powers