Events/Openings

VW (VeneKlasen/Werner) is pleased to present This Means Something to My Horse, an exhibition of new works by New York-based artist Michael Williams, on view from 27 April through 30 June.

Michael Williams paints the uncanny, with a tendency toward the outright ludicrous. His colorful, large-scale paintings combine automatic drawing, images appropriated from thrift store finds and discarded pictures, and an array of abstract forms and gestures, all rendered with a freely diverse range of painterly techniques. Often beginning with thin, doodle-like line drawings made with an airbrush, Williams layers his canvases with glazes or denser passages of paint squeezed from the tube or slathered with a knife, creating a surreal optical disorientation and depth. Williams' inventive approach to painting and his idiosyncratic visual vocabulary recall the visceral, sun-bleached narratives of Don Van Vliet or Sigmar Polke's 70s psychedelia, exploring with wit and humor the boundaries of the strange and familiar.

Michael Williams was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, in 1978. His works have been shown in recent solo exhibitions at CANADA, New York; The Journal Gallery, Brooklyn; LTD, Los Angeles; and The Green Gallery, Milwaukee. Earlier this year an exhibition at Franklin Parrasch, New York, paired works by Williams with paintings and drawings by the late Los Angeles artist John Altoon. This Means Something to My Horse is Williams' first exhibition in Berlin.

Michael Williams: This Means Something to My Horse opens with a reception for the artist on Friday 27 April from 18.00 to 21.00. As part of Gallery Weekend Berlin, VeneKlasen/Werner will be open Saturday and Sunday 28 and 29 April from 11.00 to 19.00. Please call +49 30 8161 60418 or visit vwberlin.com for more information.