Ceysson & Bénétière

Born in 1960, in Philadelphie, USA.
Lives and works in Brooklyn, USA.

Education

1985
BFA, California State University, Long Beach, USA


Residency

2010
Fondation Chinati, Marfa, USA

An idea of Bill Saylor's work might be gleaned from the title of his 2005 show at the Yerba Buena Art Center in San Francisco: Kults, Werewolves and Sarcastic Hippies. The New York-based artist makes paintings in which different traditions of art are blended and mashed. He draws not only on abstract art but on graffiti, ads, cartoons, logos, doodling, etc. In a Saylor painting, swathes and blobs of Ab-Ex-like impasto jostle for space with monsters, skeletons, leering ectoplasmic shapes, and other types of visuals seen on construction-site fencing and the sides of vintage hot rods. Saylor uses a diverse array of techniques (e.g., stencil, spraying, drawing, brush) to build up his canvases, so that no single "style"-or type of imagery-predominates. The paintings that result are raucous and polyglot.

Bill Saylor has been showing his work since the early 1990s in gallery and museum exhibitions in New York, Tokyo, Miami, Frankfurt, Las Vegas, Copenhagen, Athens, Los Angeles, and other cities. He has had several solo shows at Leo Koenig Inc. in New York. Saylor lives in Brooklyn.

Bill Saylor has been steadily mining a highly individualized body of work for well over a decade, consistently presenting solo exhibitions and maintaining a looming presence upon the contemporary painting scene in New York. What makes this interesting to note is the fact that historically, with painters in the similar genre as Saylor, i.e. 'Good Bad Painting' those types of painters, as well as rock stars of the same ilk, usually tend to burn bright and burn out. This can be attributed in most part to the sheer intensity and energy involved within this type of painting process. But Saylor keeps delivering... painting after painting, show after show. He has built an impressive, gritty, spacious and demanding vocabulary of contemporary symbols and gestures, not relying on contemporary trends but rather boldly pushing his viewers further and further into his idiosyncratic dimension of pictorial space and might. He allows wit and humor to frolic in between passages of paint, and is able to pull it off because of the enormous painterly chops he displays in addition to the crude signage. These aren't 'funny' paintings, but they do allow room for humor - the highest form of impression in acting, the realist form of impression in art. Goya understood this. Goya's 'Pastoral Paintings' which hang in the Prado Museum in Madrid are some of the darkest humored paintings ever created. Saylor has this ability as well, to weave an energetic tension within the atmosphere of his iconography - while at the same time paying homage to the physical act of painting itself. These paintings aren't as concerned with describing or detailing how it is we 'see' or'receive' images in contemporary society, rather they swell like a blood clot after a meaningful interruption of the reality of living.

John Newsom, July 2015

Group shows at Ceysson Gallery
Feed the Meter, Wandhaff
September 23 - December 16, 2017


Solo Exhibitions:

2017
SHADOW BALLERS, Magenta Plains , New York, USA

2014
Solo Booth,NADA New York, Peter Makebish Gallery, New York, USA

2011
Audio Tuna Sunshine, Leo Koenig Inc, New York, USA

2010
Ghost Light Junkie, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Artist in Residence Bill Saylor, Chianti Foundation, Marfa, USA

2009
If fantasies came by the gallon, this baby could run forever, Leo Koenig Inc. New York, USA

2007
No Confusion, Big Mistakes, Galleri Loyal, Stockholm, Sweden

2003
Softail Project, Leo Koenig Inc., New York, USA

2002
Espontaneo, Spokane Falls College, Spokane, USA

2001
Why Go Anywhere?, Leo Koenig Inc., New York, USA

Selected Group Exhibitions:

2017
Animal Farm, Brant Foundation, curated by Sadie Laska, Greenwich, USA

2017
Bombay Beach Biennial, Bombay Beach, USA

2016
Bill Saylor, Aidas Bareikis, Kim Dorland, MIER Gallery, Los Angeles , USA

2014
LIFE, Venus Over Manhattan, curated by The Journal Gallery, USA

2013
Draw Gym, No More Games , Brooklyn , USA

2010
Salad Days, Journal Gallery, Brooklyn , USA
De-Nature, Jolie Laide Gallery, Philadelphia, USA
In Dialogue, Four Generations of Painting, curated by Peter Makebish, Anonymous Gallery, New York, USA

2009
Jr. and Sons, curated by Joe Bradley, Zach Feuer Gallery, New York, USA

2008
Peanut Gallery, curated by Joe Bradley, The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn, New York, USA
Aaron Butler, Lily Ludlow, Bill Saylor and Anke Weyer, Leo Koenig Inc., New York, USA

2006
David Castillo modern and contemporary, Miami, USA
Kamp K48 John Connelly Presents, New York, USA
Bill Saylor, Josh Smith, Hiromi Yoshii Gallery, Tokyo, Japan

2005
Nada art fair Miami, USA
Monster Painting, McClain Gallery, Houston, USA
Kults, Werewolves and Sarcastic Hippies, Yerba Buena Art Center, San Francisco, USA
Hiromi Yoshi Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
New York's Finest, CANADA Gallery, New York, USA
Hope Auction for Amina Tastini, Passerby, New York, USA

2004
K48 Launch Auction, Agnes B Store, Soho, New York, USA
Contemporary Painters, curated by Alex Katz, Colby College Museum of Art, Waterville, USA
So Little Time, So Many Mistakes, curated by Josh Smith, Champion Fine Art, Brooklyn, USA
Stop & Store, Luxe Gallery, New York, USA

2003
Age of Unreason, M.O.C.A.D.C., Washington, USA

2002
Proper Villians, curated by David Hunt, Untitled Space, New Haven, USA
CTLeo Koenig Las Vegas, Neonopolis, Las Vegas, USA

2001
Strictly Painting 2, Voges & Deisen, Frankfurt, Germany
Bareikis, Giehler, and Saylor, Eleni Koroneou Gallery, Athens, Greece
Come on Feel the Noise, Asbaek Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
Escape Velocity, Miller Durazo Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
Burglar, curated by Elizabeth Balogh, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York, USA
Leo Koenig, Inc., Brooklyn, USA
You Are Now Leaving the Goldie-Locks Zone, M.O.C.A., D.C., Washington, DC, USA
Machine Gun Etiquette, Spencer Brownstone Gallery, New York, USA
Pets, Bronwyn Keenan Gallery, New York, USA
Solar Perplexus, Spanish Kitchen, Los Angeles, USA
Gramercy Art Fair, Miami, USA

1996
X-Mess, The American Gallery, Los Angeles, USA

1995
Taking Stock, curated by Kenny Schachter, The Exchange Building, New York, USA

1993
Phone, Dooley La Cappelane Gallery, New York, USA

1992
The Real Thing, curated by Erik Oppenheim, New York, USA

1991
Unlearning, curated by Kenny Schachter, 142 Greene Street, New York, USA

Selected Publications:

2016 GOLDEN FANG , 200 page zine published by OMMU, Athens GR. 
2010 HO BAGS, Harmony Korine and Bill Saylor, New York, NY
The Journal Gallery 
"Artists in Residence, 2009-2010," Chinati Foundation newsletter vol. 15. pp. 94-95

In Dialogue, Four Generations of Painting, curated by Peter Makebish, Anonymous Gallery, New York, NY:
The Atlantic Conference Press
2008Champion Zero, Los Angeles
2nd Cannons Press
Loyal, Edited and designed by Martin Lilja, Amy Giunta and Marilyn Petridean, Sweden, Stockholm, Loyal Gallery
Hell Bound, New Gothic Art, Francesca Gavin, London
Lawrence King Publishing Ltd., p. 138