MIChael Wille: VIbrations

Exhibition Dates: september 3 - 28, 2019

Reception: Thursday, september 5, 6 - 8 pm

The Painting Center is delighted to present Vibrations: New Paintings by Michael Wille in the Project Room. These small-scale paintings are meticulous constructions, built with individual layers of color that coalesce into an abstract image. 

Art critic Lori Waxman writes: “Sharp angles puncture. Michael Wille’s trio of small paintings, titled “Echo Hill” and “Front Street” for the studios in which they were scrupulously crafted, contain dozens of triangles, many of them honed enough to hurt. But not all. Some are squared off at the tip into parallelograms. Wille, who paints as much with an X-acto knife as with an aerosol can, tape or a brush, has multiple means of blunting the shapes that fill his canvases. Noticing these forms and the impenetrable dozens or even hundreds more beneath and atop them is part of the point – and the pleasure – of looking. The muddled edges of Wille’s paintings, which in their layers and drips exceed the canvas in both directions, concur. Can’t find something worth gazing at, and then something else, and then something more? Boring is on you.”

These paintings have been included in numerous solo and/or group exhibitions around the United States and abroad including venues such as Hoffman LaChance Contemporary in St. Louis, Galleri Urbane in Dallas, Resolution Gallery in Johannesburg (South Africa) and the University of Mississippi Art Gallery. His abstract paintings have also been featured in New American Paintings five separate times. In addition to maintaining an active painting practice, Wille has curated exhibitions centered on trends within the field of abstract painting, including Microscopes and Binoculars at Hoffman LaChance Contemporary in St. Louis. Wille has lectured about his work at various academic institutions including Temple University in Japan (Tokyo), Southwest University (China), the University of Iowa, the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg (South Africa), and Universidad del Arte Ganexa, Panama City, Panama.

Michael Wille is a Professor of Art at Illinois State University in Normal, IL, where he currently serves as the Director of the School of Art. Michael Wille received his MFA degree in Painting from Bowling Green State University (OH) and his BFA degree from Millikin University (IL). For more information, visit www.michaelwille.com.