William Betts vit et travaille à Miami. Ses peintures explorent les implications sociologiques et philosophiques sur la vie privée de la surveillance vidéo dans une société dominée par la technologie.

Dans sa peinture, Betts cherche l’équilibre idéal entre identification et ambiguïté, imagination et anxiété alors qu’il examine les couches ténues entre les individus et l’expérience directe de la surveillance.

Betts adapte sa pratique artistique via des processus industriels complexes de manière à élargir les possibilités de l'artisanat traditionnel. Il travaille avec des logiciels de sa conception de manière à pouvoir peindre les résultats recherchés pour chaque série.

Par exemple, pour sa série de peintures en noir et blanc basées sur la surveillance, Betts s'appuie sur la culture du street art à Miami et a créé un processus de pochoir. Il utilise un logiciel pour décomposer les captures vidéo basées sur le temps en une image en triangle qui fait référence au processus de perception spatiale du cerveau œuvres sur toile.

Pour sa série en de peintures « voyeuristes » via les caméras de surveillance sur les piscines, Betts utilise une technique exclusive qu'il a développée pour appliquer de petites gouttes brillantes de peinture acrylique avec un haut degré de précision en utilisant la technologie du mouvement linéaire et son propre logiciel. Chaque peinture contient entre 24000 et 40000 gouttes de peinture appliquées individuellement, chaque goutte représentant un seul pixel de l'image source.

Le travail de William Betts a fait l’objet de nombreuses publications et expositions aux États-Unis, au Canada et en Europe. Son travail a été présenté dans Rasterfahndung (Tracing the Grid) au Kunstmuseum de Stuttgart ainsi que dans des expositions au Arlington Museum of Art, à l'University of Dallas, au John Michael Kohler Art Center, à l'University of Texas, à la Trinity University, au Salt Lake City Art Center, à l’Université du Wisconsin, à l’Eau-Claire (Albuquerque Museum), au Blaffer Museum ainsi qu’à  l'University of Houston.

Né et élevé à New York, William Betts est diplômé de l'Arizona State University en 1991 avec mention très bien avec un B.A. en Studio Art et une mineure en philosophie.

SELECTION D'EXPOSITIONS PERSONNELLES

2018
Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC

2017
4306 Contemporary, Miami
Holly Johnson Gallery, Dallas

2016
Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York

2015
Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC

2012
Plus Gallery, Denver, CO
Robert McClain Gallery, Houston, TX

2011
Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2010
Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston, TX
Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York
Holly Johnson Gallery, Dallas

2009
Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2008
Kostuik Gallery, Vancouver, BC
Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston, TX
Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago, IL

2007
Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York, NY
Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston, TX
Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2006
Anne Reed Gallery, Sun Valley, ID
Peter Miller Gallery, Chicago, IL

2005
Bentley Projects, Phoenix, AZ
Texas State University, San Marcos, TX
Plus Gallery, Denver, CO
Gallery deSoto, Los Angeles, CA
Holly Johnson Gallery, Dallas, TX
Thomas Werner Gallery, New York, NY

2004
Poissant O’Neil Gallery, Houston, TX                        
 

SELECTION D'EXPOSITIONS COLLECTIVES

2020
Vision, Richard Levy Gallery, Albuquerque, NM

2018
Summer Salon Exhibit, Rarity Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
Peers, Trestle Projects, Brooklyn New York

2017
Summer Salon Exhibit, Rarity Gallery, Mykonos, Greece
Painted Landscapes: Contemporary Views, Heritage Museums & Gardens
Sandwich, MA

2015
Brave New World, DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Praha, Czech Republic

2013
Logical Expressions and Variations, Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York

2012
Rasterfahndung (Tracing the Grid), Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
Just Not Yet: Dodging the Vacuum of Meaning, Landmark Gallery, Texas Tech University

2011
SUBstainability, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX

2010
This is not a photo show, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, San Antonio
Appropriate manipulate duplicate, Gallery Joe, Philadelphia, PA

2009
Landscape Affected, University of Dallas, Haggerty Gallery, Irving, TX

2008
Pixilated, Winston Wachter Fine Art, New York, NY
Invisible Omniscience: Seeing and the Seen, Baltimore Art Place
New American Talent 23, Arthouse, Austin, TX
Re-mix, Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York, NY
Group Show, Trinity University, San Antonio, Steven Lam, Curator
Houston Area Show, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston, Claudia Schmukli, Curator
Under Surveillance, John Michael Kohler Art Center, Sheboygan, WI
Group Show, Spur Projects, Portola Valley, CA
Assistance League Celebrates Texas Art 2008. Dr. Kevin Salatino, LACMA Juror

2007
Collectors Gallery, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY
Chill: Summer Group Show, Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York
B & W, Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery, Houston, TX
Texas Biennial, Austin, TX
Fab Ab, Salt Lake City Art Center

2006
Watch it! Television’s Influence in Art. State University of New York, Stony Brook, NY
Baroque Visions and Urban Verities: Seven Houston Painters, Blue Star, San Antonio, curated by Terrie Sultan and Chris French
SUPERvision, Foster Gallery, University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire               
Texas Paint, Part Two: Abstraction, Arlington Museum of Art, curated by Anne Allen
Biennial Southwest, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque NM, Dr. Neal Benezra, Director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Juror and Curator
OPENDraw, OPENSOURCE Art, Champaign, IL
Works on Paper National Competition, Long Beach, New Jersey, Juror: Carter Foster, Drawing Curator Whitney Museum of American Art
5 Angles on Abstraction, Addison Arts, Santa Fe
Ripped from the Pages, Gallery 125, CACHH, Houston, Texas
Blurring the Line, University of Texas San Antonio, Julie Shipp CuratorAssistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art, Houston, Jeffrey D. Grove,    Curator of Contemporary Art, High Museum of Art Atlanta Juror

2005
New Texas Painting, Diverseworks, Houston
Clothesline Exhibition, the Hospital, Covent Garden, London
Three Landscape Painters, Morgan Lehman Gallery, Lakeville, Connecticut
Incremental Disruption, NAO Gallery, Boston
20th Annual International Exhibition, University of Texas, Tyler, Texas
Texas Biennial, Austin, Texas
Assistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art, Houston, Texas, Dominic Molon, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Curator
DPI:2004 Competition, Kellogg University Art Gallery Cal Poly, Pomona, California

2004
The Big Show, Lawndale Art Center, Houston                            

DISTINCTIONS & PRIX

2010
Individual Artist Grant, New Works Fellowship Award, Houston Arts Alliance

2008
Finalist, Hunting Art Prize
First Place, Assistance League Celebrates Texas Art 2008. Dr. Kevin Salatino, Curator of Drawings and Prints LACMA, Juror

2006
Best in Show, Biennial Southwest, Albuquerque Museum, Albuquerque NM, Neal Benezra, Director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Juror and Curator
Third Place Prize, Assistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art, Jeffrey D. Grove, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, High Museum of Art Atlanta Juror

2005
Individual Artist Grant, Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris County
Third Place Prize, Assistance League of Houston Celebrates Texas Art, Dominic Molon, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Juror and Curator

SELECTION DE REFERENCES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES

The Creators Project, 06.2016
Politiken, Københagen, Photo Essay, 03.28.2016
Kinetic, Art from Polsinelli Art Collection, Privately Published 2015Victoria Machmudov, Under övervakningsradarn, Konstperspektiv, Limhamm, Sweden,  06.2014
Rasterfahndung (Tracing the Grid), Kunstmuseum Stuttgar (Show Catalog)
Just Not Yet: Dodging the Vaccum of Meaning, Landmark Gallery, Texas Tech University (Show Catalog)
Painted Landscapes, Lauren P. Della Monica, Schiffer Books. 2013
Iris Mclister, WIlliam Betts Review: Terminal at Richard Levy Gallery, THE Magazine, 2011
Douglas Britt, Confronting Beauty - And The Ugly Truth - In A Mirror, Houston Chronicle, 11.07.2010
The Southwest’s Top Ten Exhibition Picks for 2010, Huffington Post, 12.30.2010
Charissa N. Terranova, William Betts at Holly Johnson, ARTLIES, Issue 65, Winter 2010
Manon Slome, The Aesthetics of Terror, Charta
Claudia Schmukli, Houston Area Show, Blaffer Gallery, University of Houston (Show Catalog)
Sharon Brock, Looming threats spark art, Palo Alto Daily News, February 28, 2008
Alan Artner, Chilling surveillance-camera images tap into fears, Chicago Tribune, January 18, 2008.
New American Paintings - Western Region Edition No. 72, Nick Capasso, juror                      
Kelly Klaasmeyer, Retinal Redux, Houston Press, April 19, 2007
Elaine Wolff, Reading Between the Pixels, San Antonio Current, March 13, 2007
Nikki Moore, Bi-ology, Austin Chronicle, March 1, 2007
Brian Staker, Abs, Tracked, Salt Lake City Weekly, April 18, 2007
Texas Biennial 2007, Austin, Texas, Show Catalog
Theresa Downing, SUPERvision, Foster Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Eau-Claire (Show Catalog)
Margery Gordon, Art Basel Miami: Pulse Beats Sophomore Slump, ARTINFO.com, December 9, 2006
Dan R. Goddard, Houston, in the eyes of the artists, San Antonio Express-News, December 3, 2006
Nancy Salem, Biennial Southwest, Albuquerque Tribune, October 5, 2006
Biennial Southwest, Albuquerque Museum, Show Catalog
Bill Davenport: Ripped from the Pages at CACHH, Glasstire.com, May 15, 2006
Bill Davenport: William Betts Makes Art and a Profit, Houston Chronicle, Sunday Zest Magazine cover story, May 7, 2006
Alan Artner, Review: William Betts at Peter Miller, Chicago Tribune, March 10, 2006
Lauren Weinberg, William Betts at Peter Miller, Time Out Chicago, March 3, 2006
Fred Camper, Slices of Light, Chicago Reader, March 3, 2006
Kelly Klaasmeyer, Grab Bag: Diverseworks surveys Texas Painting, Houston Press, December 2005
Charissa N. Terranova, William Betts at Holly Johnson, ARTLIES 48, Fall 2005
New American Painting, Volume 60, Open Studios Press, 2005, Fereshteh Daftari, Assistant Curator, Museum of Modern Art, Juror
Michael Paglia, Formal Ware, Westword Weekly, May 13, 2005
D’Lynne Plummer, Destination Nao, South End News, April 2005
Cate McQuaid, Incremental Disruption, The Boston Globe, April 15, 2005
Jeanne Claire van Ryzin, Brushed With Greatness, Austin American-Statesman, March 8, 2005
Elaine Wolff, Digital-induced Angst and Sensory Overload, San Antonio Current, March 10, 2005
J R Compton, The 2005 Texas Biennial: The Illusive 3rd Dimension, Dallas Arts Revue, March, 2005
Tyler Green, ArtLA Faves, Artsjournal.com, February 2, 2005

(Textes en Anglais uniquement)
COLORSPACE PAINTINGS

"My studio practice has always shifted back-and-forth between representation and non-objective painting with each series of paintings informing the next.

The work represents my continuing investigation of the painting process and the application of technology to that process. The Color Space series is a visual representation of a complete technology process from the initial image generation through the application of paint.

In previous work, I started with a photographic or video image and used technology to transform and paint it. In developing this new body of work, I wanted the image making process to be equally as rigid as the production method. These paintings begin as a small cluster of random color information. This initial image then goes through a very specific sequence to create the resulting images which are then converted into a set of machine instructions and painted using my methodology. The entire sequence and process is proprietary and closed. The processes create a bold and complex space defined solely by color and the machine's attempt to rationalize and synthesize the color transitions within each image. Rather than using the systems to adjust and render a photographic image, with this series I am more interested in exploring the nuances and possibilities of the technology as an aesthetic generator.

These paintings are executed in an elaborate and time consuming proprietary technique I developed for applying small drops of paint with a high degree of accuracy utilizing linear motion technology and my on proprietary software. Each painting has between 24 and 40 Thousand individually applied drops of paint with each drop representing a single pixel from the source image."

William Betts

SURVEILLANCE PAINTINGS

"I use complex industrial processes to create paintings that reflect the possibilities for an analog medium in a digital age. I use highly modified linear motion technology and my own proprietary software, laser engravers, and other computer controlled devices to apply and manipulate paint. My work is typically based on photographic material mediated through technology and process. I use images as data sets to be examined, sampled, re-contextualized, manipulated and represented.

I have always been less interested in content and more concerned with the structural and social aspects of the image. My practice is non-linear and I work on several bodies of work and techniques concurrently. They inform each other and also help clarify each other.

We live in a society where there is a continuing erosion of privacy. We move through spaces with the illusion that are most private conversations and our most intimate contacts and actions are private. On the web, we willingly turn over our most intimate secrets to the world’s largest corporations assuming they will protect us. The ubiquity of surveillance and photography makes me an unwitting character actor in thousands and thousands of CCTV videos and holiday photographs as I traverse a city square or walk through a park. These mediations create a new visual vocabulary I explore in my work.  I was originally inspired by the writings of Jeremy Bentham on the Panopticon and Michel Foucault in his work Discipline & Punish. My paintings seek to create dialog and explore the sociological and philosophical implications of these new applied technologies in contemporary society.

In my work I look for the ideal balance between recognition and ambiguity allowing viewers to draw on their own experiences, imagination, and anxieties."

William Betts