Billy White
Untitled, 2018
acrylic on canvas
30 x 28 inches
Adams and Ollman is pleased to present a solo exhibition of paintings by Billy White (b. 1962, lives in Hercules, California, and works in Richmond, California). Marking the artist’s first solo exhibition on the West Coast, the show will feature a selection of his expressive portraits made between 2016 and 2019. The exhibition is on view January 9 through February 6, 2021.
With graphic marks and emphatic colors, White conjures portraits that are celebratory and personal. Muscular and energetic brushstrokes coalesce to form complex images that are more emotional than representational. White’s subjects include his family and himself, as well as iconic figures from the worlds of film, television, music, sports, and art history. Captured in profile and at the front of the picture plane, each figure appears isolated, their likeness distilled to essential elements and forms assembled with bold lines and gestures. Often with unexpected shifts in perspective, the resulting works are psychologically-charged depictions of the human form.
Since 1994, Billy White has worked at Nurturing Independence Through Artistic Development (NIAD), a progressive art studio in Richmond, California, that supports the careers of artists with disabilities.
Bill Traylor
Untitled (Brown Rabbit, Brown Dog), c. 1939–42
graphite and poster paint on cardboard
18 1/4 x 11 1/2 inches
Adams and Ollman is pleased to present three works by William "Bill" Traylor (b. 1853, Benton, Alabama; d. 1949, Montgomery, Alabama) on view at the gallery January 9 through February 6, 2021. Traylor, a self-taught artist, born into slavery, began to draw at the age of 85 while living on the streets of Montgomery, Alabama. Using discarded cardboard and signs, pencil, and poster paint, Traylor recorded his memories of plantation life and later observations of the city—uniquely and distinctly describing animals, human figures, and abstract forms with a commanding use of line, color, and composition. Traylor's body of work speaks poignantly to the complexities, inequalities, and tensions that the artist experienced and witnessed during the Jim Crow Era in the United States.