featured artists»Hadley Williams

Contributing artist Hadley Williams uses a variety of mediums on a variety of surfaces -- pencil applied directly on wood; stitches on fabric; correction tape on paper; manufactured elements such as bubble wrap and rubber bands, among others -- all of which she meticulously and seamlessly integrates into her work. The wide, innovative range of her materiality combines with a minimalist approach and with tightly focused conceptions of dimension, geometry, and time. Together these material and conceptual elements provide a tempo by which a viewer can engage with a work: to travel upon its surface, to pause, to travel, to pause again in another place. This sense of discovery within a single piece is as exciting as it is rare.

Williams describes her work as a balance between control and flexibility. And this sense of balance extends not least of all to the specificity and novelty of her mediums, which Williams allows to come forward but not overwhelm. For example, in "Pencil Circles" (2008) grains of the wood surface are incorporated and acknowledged and then, in a sense, pulled back, so that they do not become the sole focus. In broader terms, Williams' work demonstrates an interplay between the rigors of mark-making and the spontaneity of specific marks, all of which are slightly unique. A subdued and subtly shifting palette compliments the graphic atmosphere, in which such repeated marks tell the story of the differentiation of the mechanical from the organic, the general from the specific. Always, they urge the viewer to come closer to, and spend more time with the image.

Such a viewing brings into focus the temporality of each work, calling attention not merely to the extraordinary time involved in each piece's creation, but to the possibilities of that piece's future.

Williams works out of her immaculate studio in Berkeley, CA, and is currently enrolled in the MFA program at John F. Kennedy University in Berkeley. more info at: hadleywilliams.com