Brian Wills
Lexington, 1970. Vive e lavora a Los Angeles.
Attingendo a un vocabolario visivo unico fatto di filo, vernice e legno, Wills crea opere che evocano una comprensione esperienziale della linea, del colore, dello spazio e dell’oggetto. La sua tecnica consiste nell’avvolgere singoli fili colorati attorno a supporti di legno con estrema precisione, creando così una superficie che sembra vibrare e mutare a seconda della luce disponibile, della densità del filo, della struttura del pannello e del movimento dello spettatore. Le composizioni più libere sono racchiuse in poliuretano industriale per catturare la luce e alterare ulteriormente la percezione. Il suo lavoro potrebbe essere descritto, secondo le sue stesse parole, come «minimalista e naturale» e «un po’ ossessivo».
Wills è profondamente consapevole dei meccanismi della percezione. La corteccia visiva interpreta contemporaneamente colore, movimento, consistenza e profondità. Creando e spezzando schemi, egli richiama l’attenzione sui processi stessi della costruzione visiva. Influenzato da James Turrell, Joseph Albers e Agnes Martin, la sua pratica lo pone in dialogo con la grande tradizione percettivista, pur rimanendo distintamente materica e artigianale. Le sue opere sono conservate al MAC 3 – Los Angeles County Museum of Art, al Museum of Contemporary Art di Los Angeles, all’Hammer Museum, alla Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, alla Dallas Van-Breda Collection, alla JP Morgan Chase Collection e in numerose altre collezioni private e pubbliche.
Will ha conseguito una laurea triennale presso la Denison University, un master presso l’Università di Harvard e un dottorato in giurisprudenza presso la Harvard Law School.
Brian Wills
Lexington, 1970. Lives and works in Los Angeles.
Building upon a unique visual vocabulary of thread, paint, and wood, Wills creates works that evoke experiential understandings of line, color, space and object. His technique involves wrapping singular strands of colored thread around wooden substrates with extreme precision, eventually creating a surface that appears to vibrate and shift, depending on available light, thread density, the architecture of the panel, and the motion of the viewer. Looser compositions are encased in industrial polyurethane to harness light and alter perception further. His work could be described in his own words as 'minimal and nature' and 'a bit obsessive.'
Wills is acutely aware of the mechanics of perception. The visual cortex, interprets, color, motion, texture, and depth simultaneously. By creating and breaking patterns he draws attention to the processes of visual construction itself. Influenced by James Turrell, Joseph Albers, and Agnes Martin his practice places him in dialogue with the great perceptionalist tradition while remaining distinctly material and handmade. His works are held in MAC 3- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Musuem of Contemporay Art Los Angeles The Hammer Museum, the Frederick, R. Weisman Art Foundation, the Dallas Van-Breda Collection, the JP.Morgan Chase collection and numerous other private and public collections
Will received a BA from Denison University, MA from Harvard University and is JD from Harvard Law school.
Selezione di esposizioni personali / Selected solo shows
2026
Santa Fe, Charlotte Jackson, A Whiter Shade of Pale
2023
New York, TOTAH, Radium
2022
Los Angeles, OCHI, Brian Wills
2018
Montreal, Parisian Laundry
San Francisco, OCHI (UNTITLED)
2017
San Diego, Quint Gallery, Texture/Pattern
Los Angeles, Praz-Delavallade, Line + Light
New York, Praz-Delavallade (The Armory Show)
New York, TOTAH, Transient (con Helen Pashgian)
2016
La Jolla, Quint Gallery, Brian Wills and John McLaughlin
Paris, Praz-Delavallade, New Works
2015
Ketchum, OCHI, Brian Wills and Molly Larkey
2014
La Jolla, Quint Gallery, Seemingly
Paris, Dominique Fiat, Strength of Illusion: Line and Light (con Laddie John Dill)
2013
Los Angeles, Nye + Brown, Oscillations
Ketchum, OCHI, Wow and Flutter
2012
Los Angeles, Nye + Brown, Unwound
2011
Beverly Hills, Karl Hutter Fine Art, New Works
New York, Nyehaus, New Works
Beverly Hills, Karl Hutter Fine Art
2009
Houston, Barbara Davis Gallery
2008
Tokyo, Gallery Min Min
Los Angeles, The Happy Lion, String Theory
2006
Los Angeles, The Happy Lion
Selezione di esposizioni collettive / Selected group shows
2021
Los Angeles, OCHI Aux, Expanded Field
Sun Valley, OCHI, An Imprint of the Smallest Gesture
2019
Huntington Beach, Huntington Beach Art Center, The Edge of Light: Historic and Contemporary Perspectives on California Abstraction (a cura di Peter Blake)
Los Angeles, Praz-Delavallade, The Sound of Silence
Sun Valley, OCHI, Inclined to Blur at the Edges
2018
Sun Valley, OCHI, Does It Make Sound
Los Angeles, UNIT 5, I Dream My Painting and Then I Paint My Dream
New York, Joshua Liner Gallery
East Hampton, Rental Gallery, Woven (a cura di Mia Romanik)
2017
Los Angeles, Praz-Delavallade, I Love L.A.
2016
Los Angeles, OCHI, Un-Structure
New York, TOTAH, Cosmic Connections
London, Soho Review, What’s Up? (a cura di Lawrence Van Hagen)
2015
Los Angeles / Palm Beach, Gavlak Gallery, Tenth Anniversary Show
Los Angeles, OCHI, Up to and Including the Horizon
New York, Dorsky Curatorial, An Aesthetics of Slowness
2014
Palm Beach, Gavlak Gallery, Blessed Oblivion
Los Angeles, The Underground Museum, Veils
Ketchum, OCHI, The Value of a Line
2012
Culver City, Catherine Cone Gallery, Summer of Jack: Jack Brogan
Oxnard, Carnegie Art Museum, California Art: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
2011
Los Angeles, Nye + Brown, Lords & The New Creatures
Indian Wells, Royale Projects, I Don’t Know Where But She Sends Me There
Torrance, Torrance Art Museum, What’s New Pussycat?
Culver City, Roberts Projects, Gray Day
New York, Friedrich Petzel Gallery / Metro Pictures / Nyehaus, Swell: Art 1950–2010
Los Angeles, The Happy Lion, Bubble and Squeak
Venice, Marine Projects, Paintings and Sculpture
2007
Torrance, Torrance Art Museum, Themes and Variations: New Abstraction in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, The Happy Lion, Fleeing the Scene
Bel-Air, Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, California Art: Selections from the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation
London, Museum 52, Consequence
2005
Köln, Galerie Michael Janssen, Sight Lines: Recent Work from Los Angeles
2004
Los Angeles, The Happy Lion, Sight Lines
Beverly Hills, Christies / Scope Circle Committee for Emerging Art, Scope Los Angeles
2003
Los Angeles, Hayworth Gallery, What a Painting Can Do
2002
Los Angeles, Gensler, Optics
San Diego, Museum of Contemporary Art