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.”
Michael Williams has had solo and two-person exhibitions at 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). His work is in the public collections of institutions that include the Carnegie Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; Dallas Museum of Art; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. At the moment Williams lives and works in Los Angeles.
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
Mega Cookies, 2018
oil on canvas
98 x 82 inches
(248.9 x 208.3 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
Untitled Puzzle Drawing, 2017
pen and collage on paper
12 x 9 inches
(30.5 x 22.9 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
Your Funk Myx, 2015
inkjet and airbrush on canvas
100 1/4 x 79 x 1 1/2 inches
(254.6 x 200.7 x 3.8 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)