CHARLIE JAMES GALLERY | William Powhida

William Powhida

SHOWS @ CJG:

Bill by Bill
Dallas Art Fair 2013
Miami Project 2012
artMRKT San Francisco 2012
Dallas Art Fair 2012
PULSE Miami 2011
Art Toronto 2011
Texas Contemporary
PULSE Los Angeles 2011
Art Aspen 2011
NEXT Chicago 2011
If These Walls Could Talk – A Conversation
Group Exhibition in Conjunction with Marine
Art San Diego 2010
Art Aspen 2010
NEXT Chicago 2010
Pulse NY 2010
No One Here Gets Out Alive

Artist's Resume (pdf, 140.38 Kb)

Artist's Catalog (pdf, 3.03 Mb)

Artist's Website

BIO/STATEMENT:

William Powhida (b. 1976, New York) is an artist and critic living and working in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. For several years Powhida worked as an art critic for the Brooklyn Rail while developing his own artistic practice. Powhida’s work, reflecting his critical background, displays a concentrated fascination with the politics of access and the powers that control the assignment of value in the artworld. All roles are fair game, from nouveau-hot artists and the market-setting collectors that buy them, to the branded dealers that sell the work and the critics paid to provide intellectual justification for the pricepoints.

To soften what might appear a direct editorial voice, Powhida projects his commentary through the lens of an alter-ego, one with whom he shares a name (William Powhida). This alter-ego closely resembles any number of freshly minted artworld ‘geniuses,’ though Powhida’s character happens to exhibit all of the worst traits imaginable in any coddled enfant-terrible art star. The fictional Powhida is petulant, narcissistic, and debauched. He has enormous feelings of entitlement, and a perspective so firmly rooted in solipsism that it seems an impossible exaggeration. This art star on the verge of self-immolation documents his misery and rage against the manifold injustices of the art world through a series of To Do Lists, Enemies Lists, and monomaniacal screeds that take on the look of disturbed 3am rants. However, not all of this work exists in the first person. In addition to the alter-ego’s jeremiads, Powhida adds the sycophantic voice of the press ¬ a vital part of the star-making process. Ostensibly a frequent subject of Man About Town profiles in fashion magazines and newspapers, the alter-ego’s more offensive conduct and outsized claims are documented in this way.

Which brings us to the startling visual power of Powhida’s work. All of the content above, from the character’s first-person attacks to press profiles by the New York Post, the LA Weekly, and 944 Magazine (examples) are all rendered in beautiful trompe l’oeil compositions that use various combinations of graphite, gouache, and colored pencil on either panel or paper. It is in fact the visual presentation of Powhida’s arguments, coupled with their humor, that makes Powhida’s sometimes scathing commentaries so much fun to digest.

William Powhida earned his BFA from Syracuse University, and took his MFA from Hunter College. He is represented by Platform Gallery in Seattle, and Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles.

POWHIDA Trailer from Charlie James Gallery on Vimeo.

William Powhida Where Does Power Come From, 2012 Watercolor, graphite and colored pencil on paper 22 x 30 inches

William Powhida

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Bill by Bill, Installation shot @ CJG, April 2013
Press Release, Graphite and watercolor on paper. 19 x 15 inches, 2013
A Post Minimalism, Panel: Graphite and watercolor on panel, 19 x 15 inches 2013
A Post Minimalism, Three columns on base: Acrylic on MDF, 72 x 36 x 12 inches, 2013
A Neo-Modernism, Panel: Graphite and watercolor, 19 x 15 inches. 2013
A Neo-Modernism, Sculpture: Wood, plexiglass and acrylic, 49 x 49 inches, 2013
Some Shiny Objects, Panel: Graphite and watercolor, 19 x 15 inches. 2013
Some Shiny Objects, Mirror/steel sculpture: Mirror, nickel-plated drywall studs, 48 x 48 x 30 inches, 2013
Some Asset Class (Digital) Paintings – Color Fields, Panel: Graphite and watercolor, 19 x 15 inches. 2013
Some Asset Class (Digital) Paintings – Color Fields, Stretched prints on canvas: Archival pigment prints, canvas, stretcher bars. Central 72 x 38 inches; Left: 72 x 30 inches; Right: 72 x 30 inches, 2013
A Taxidermied Animal, Panel: Graphite and watercolor, 19 x 15 inches. 2013
A Taxidermied Animal, Crate and Coyote: Wood crate, coyote, pink packing peanuts, 19 x 65 x 27.5 inches, 2013
A Hypothetical Word or Phrase in Neon, Panel: Graphite and watercolor, 19 x 15 inches. 2013
A Hypothetical Word or Phrase in Neon, Neon: Pink neon line, .5 x 48 x 2 inches , 2013
What Kind of Art Is That? Graphite and watercolor on paper. 22 x 15 inches, 2013
What Can We Learn About Art? Installation of 4 panel paintings. Each Panel: Graphite and watercolor. 19 x 15 inches. 2013
What Can We Learn About Art? Installation of 4 panel paintings. Each Panel: Graphite and watercolor. 19 x 15 inches. 2013
What Can We Learn About Art? Installation of 4 panel paintings. Each Panel: Graphite and watercolor. 19 x 15 inches. 2013
What Can We Learn About Art? Installation of 4 panel paintings. Each Panel: Graphite and watercolor. 19 x 15 inches. 2013
A Taxonomy of Objects on a Shelf, Panel: Graphite and watercolor. 19 x 15 inches. 2013
A Taxonomy of Objects on a Shelf, Objects on shelf: Ceramic and lustre glaze on shelf, 9 x 31 x 9 inches, 2013
An Informal Materialism (with Free Wood and Rectangles), Panel: Graphite and watercolor, 19 x 15 inches. 2013
An Informal Materialism (with Free Wood and Rectangles)Found wooden object and primer – 8 x 2.75 x 31 inches. Dropcloth and black acrylic – 75 x 41 inches. 2013
A (really bad, bad) Neo-Expressionist Painting, Panel: Graphite and watercolor, 19 x 15 inches. 2013
A (really bad, bad) Neo-Expressionist Painting, Painting: Acrylic on linen, 58 x 44 inches, 2013
Some Criteria For Evaluation, Graphite and watercolor on paper. 22 x 15 inches, 2013
Some DIY Informalism, Panel: Graphite and watercolor, 19 x 15 inches. 2013
Some DIY Informalism, Stretcher bar painting: Acrylic and enamel on canvas, exposed stretcher bars, 47 x 50 inches, 2013
Some DIY Informalism, Shaped canvas painting: Acrylic on canvas, 51 1⁄2 x 51 inches, 2013
Some DIY Informalism, Painted tower: Acrylic on canvas, 39 x 12 x 3.5 inches, 2013
Some DIY Informalism, Painted tower: Acrylic on canvas, 39 x 12 x 3.5 inches, 2013
A Geometric Hard-Edge ‘Abstract’ shapes in a flat pictorial plane, Panel: Graphite and watercolor. 19 x 15 inches. 2013
A Geometric Hard-Edge ‘Abstract’ shapes in a flat pictorial plane, Painting: Acrylic on linen, 58 x 44 inches, 2013
Tips For Artists Who Want to Sell (New and Unimproved), 2011. Screenprint. Edition of 30. 30 x 23 inches.
William Powhida Where Does Power Come From, 2012 Watercolor, graphite and colored pencil on paper 22 x 30 inches
Rant 1, 2010. Colored pencil and graphite on paper. 48 x 32 inches
You, 2010. Watercolor, oil, graphite and colored pencil on panel. 24 x 18 inches
How the New Museum Committed Suicide with Banality
LA Makeover Chart, 2009 | Graphite, watercolor, and colored pencil on paper | 22 x 30 Inches
How To Destroy LA, 2009 | Graphite, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper | 18 x 15 Inches
William Powhida Installation "No One Gets Out of Here Alive" at CJG, December 2009