Courtesy of William Downs.
By KENDALL KRATZ August 4, 2024
William Downs is looking forward to his retrospective exhibition, Live & Work: Making Drawings, and appearance as a guest artist at the Martin Museum in Waco, Texas.
For those familiar with his work, this retrospective will be a delightful summary of his canon. Since he was 15, Downs has performed a very specific form of installation. He draws on walls in black and white, usually figurative work incorporating architectural features endemic to the space. He sometimes creates models and studies, but often he works on vibes. Each installation is completely custom to the show. Downs explains, “I like to go to a place with no ideas and use my travel, music, and things I’ve read to create spontaneous, fresh artwork. That’s what makes the work feel refreshing. There’s no planning.”
People love what Downs is doing, for good reason. His figures have a haunting, surreal quality. They fill the space so completely that the room is organically converted to a 2D experiential exhibition. Downs’ landmark show at The Maryland Institute College of Art was a spectacular example of how he perceives the transparency of space. Having taught there, he was already familiar with the gallery but found the spirit of the architecture anew while working: “You forget all of the personalities of the space when you have to deal with it. I had to deal with security cameras, ventilation, pillars, and spaces between walls.”
In that show, Down turned a security figure into a cyclops peeling from the wall. He turned the ventilation system into monsters. He placed one intense figure in the center of a 50-foot wall, the largest he’s ever made. Downs recalls, “It’s very intense when you let a space hold one thing. I had to negotiate with letting go a little bit and embracing that one figure.”
Courtesy of William Downs.
Downs’ work is in permanent collections including The High Museum of Art, Drawing Collection, The Birmingham Museum of Art, and The Smithsonian Museum of Art. Art. His awards include Artadia, The Working Artist Project at MOCA GA, and The Nellie Mae Rowe Fellowship at Hambidge Creative Residency Program.
However, while working on a feature film, Landscape with Invisible Hand (dir. Corey Finley), Downs used color. “I had to make 60 paintings for this movie,” recalls Downs. “At the same time, I was working on a show for L.A. in black and white. My studio had the black and white work on one side and color on the other.”
Downs found himself enjoying the split: “There was a balance happening, and it made those works speak to each other.” It is unclear when or where Downs will apply this insight, as the Martin Museum show is already planned. Preparing for a heavy week of workshops, and a lecture and an installation, Downs feels, “This is not improv.”
Courtesy of William Downs.
Live & Work: Making Drawings will be a true retrospective: black and white work accumulated since 2018. Tied with a signature onsite drawing, Downs will incorporate past work – spiritual, heavy, and art historical – into more current work about pop culture and sportsmanship. His cited influences for the show include “Carvaggio and Kerry James Marshall,” a delightful pairing.
“As I’ve been working, I’ve been thinking about chapters. Different chapters carry different weight. I’m looking at how they make narratives,” Downs explores. “It’s about how the black and white work has been important to me, seeing the mileage I’ve gotten out of this work, and wondering…”
As a longtime fan of Downs’ spatial creations, I am excited to see how his recent explorations will impact future installations. There’s no predicting what will happen in work after this retrospective, including an upcoming October exhibition UT Downtown Gallery. As expected, Downs will be relying on his organic connection to the energy of his work: “The show will be from imagination, and I’ll let the environment influence me in Tennessee. I try to stay out of my head so that I can be on every time I’m touching a surface. I’m more spontaneous, more free. I go along with the lines instead of thinking too much or questioning. That stops the process. I’m a doer, I like to just make it and go for it. WM
