Steven Cushner: New Paintings / William Willis: Works on Paper

Exhibition: April 8–May 28, 2010
Opening Reception: Thursday, April 8, 6:30pm–8:30pm

Steven Cushner: New Paintings, 

and William Willis: Works on Paper

Steven Cushner, Sapling, 2010, acrylic on canvas, 68" x 53"

“The painting is not an open window for the viewer’s eye, it is an object for the viewer’s mind”
-Steven Cushner

Cushner’s new paintings on view at Hemphill offer a revelatory and engaging experience for the viewer. The large format canvases convey Cushner’s unique visual language, rich in a vocabulary of pattern, color, symmetry, and repetition. Through this vernacular, he is able to perfect a balance between fleeting gestures and concrete forms. In his new body of work, Cushner experiments with new applications of color and metamorphoses geometric forms into more robust, undulating and fluid patterns. The result is an energetic exhibition that invites the audience to join Cushner on an emotional and physical journey.

William Willis, Still Life with Snake Plant and Drapery, 2007-09,
        mixed media and collage on paper, 12 1/2" x 8 1/8"

It is during the process of drawing that William Willis feels most liberated and impassioned. To Willis, drawing is the most direct expression of the imagination and, therefore, is the initial step in his artistic practice. The works on paper on view at Hemphill are imbued with the same freshness and spontaneity found in all of his drawings. They are a continuation of the works on paper presented in his exhibition at Hemphill in 2004 and reflect the inspiration he has found in artists such as Giorgio Morandi and Pablo Picasso. The notion of art as a continuous journey with no final destination is evident in these pieces as Willis experiments with and repeatedly refines forms and patterns.

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