There was once a professor who consistently lamented people not spending time with a work of art. She felt that consuming art became speedy, mediums were not fully appreciated in their details, and therefore a lot of great artwork may never get proper recognition. It’s safe to say this is true for many people, and even those like myself who studied art have definitely overlooked pieces due to the extreme saturation of available art to see, especially in a metropolis like New York City (though it is something I greatly try to avoid while in a space.)

I was stuck in front of Scott Williams’ painting 50th Street Maspeth this past weekend, due to the intimate space at Art101 being packed with people, but I’m glad I was. His work first appears like an impressionistic modern landscape – a view of the street, cars parked, sunny day, fence to the side – but the more I stared at it the more odd I found it. I noticed his use of perspective is based on traditional one-point perspective yet it is shifted off to the side thereby disrupting the everyday banality of this type of setting. Furthermore, his use of oil paint appears both deliberate, in regards to shadowing and color, and accidental in regards to the application of paint itself. This imbues the scene with a sense of randomness and further complicates it. He writes of his “chance” paintings – “For on site, ‘plein air painting’, a map of Queens and Brooklyn was marked with gridded coordinates. Throwing numbered and lettered coins lead to a location on the map at which, over several sessions, a painting is completed.”

Randomness is also an integral part of his portrait series. He places an ad on Craig’s List, not for models, but for anyone to show up at his studio and post for a painting. He has no screening process, and paints anyone who contacts him and physically shows up. He asks them to take a chance on him, and he subsequently takes a chance on them. The portraits are trials in understanding and depicting the particular nature of the sitter. While quite a few are distanced, there are some that capture a sense of intimacy despite the meeting of artist and sitter happening so soon. His use of paint is in keeping with his landscapes as well, which ties right into the dichotomy of planned versus random in his work. If you look closer, and for no longer, the veil of the banal is lifted and what I was left with was a surprising sense of intrigue for both landscapes and the individuals in a few of his portraits.

Both can be seen at Art101’s latest group show that opened this past Friday, and closes March 27th.

-Sabeena Khosla-