Til Will

As the digital universe continues to invade painting, I consider the experience of seeing
painting as twofold (in person and on screen), and therefore recognize that our
dependence on screens has been affecting painting for years. I consider that much of
culturally significant imagery is an illusion produced in modelling software. Real space is
often fabricated because real space is too expensive to film. I think of life as a
patchwork of experiences had through screens and had through my senses in real
space. Both should be considered real life, which complicates the plot of
representational painting. The ability to fabricate impossible light scenarios and
nonsensical space in 3D models was a twist for me. It couldn’t possibly be constructed
in actual space to look the same as it does in the model. Dissecting this imbalance
leaves only a cyber-observational painting practice.

On this basis, my paintings explore an unseen dimension that has roots in collective
memory; simplified drawings remove complexities which I hope will allow space for
people to make connections without context. I want the work to carry a levity, and
maybe even expose the grey area between conceptuality and non-thinking. Starting
from simple sketches and collaged observations, the paintings strain to maintain the
initial contact, often resulting in something loose.

Til Will is a Brooklyn based multidisciplinary artist and producer. He keeps a studio
practice that involves painting, digital animation, and music production. This year he
co-founded the animation studio PilMawilla, which premiered three music videos in 2022. He is currently the organizer of Watercolour Society, which hosts freeform still life
& plein air watercolor painting meetups around Brooklyn. He is the co-founder of the
label Y3S Recordings, which releases music by a collective of artists based in Brooklyn.
The label has released six EPs and one LP since its inception in 2021, and the
collective organized the concert series “Container Club” in 2021-2022. Will founded
Open House, a curatorial project space that hosted exhibitions and published criticism
as well as artist interviews online from 2015-2018. His writing has been featured in Two
Coats of Paint as well as on Flat Rate Contemporary. He participated with Open House
as a curator in Spring/Break Art Show in 2017 and 2018. In October of 2018, he was
given a residency at Utopia 126 in Barcelona. In 2019 he was featured in an interview
with Art of Choice. Recently Will has shown paintings at Project Gallery V, the
Springfield Art Museum, and in pop-up exhibitions at Pokito and Deanna Evans Project
online.