Karl Hutter Fine Art
NY Artist William Quigley Returned to LA for a Special Solo Exhibition with Karl Hutter Fine Art in Beverly Hills, CA Thurs. April 28th, 2016
William Quigley showcased his newest work: a raw 32’ x 6’ painting divided into six individually-framed panels. “Could this be my Guernica?” the artist quipped. “I’ve always been interested in history and how painting documents our time. In this series, I was exploring the evolution of abstraction and historical allegory in the context of what is going on in our country and my life personally. It’s a challenge trying to mix abstraction with very personal emotions. One of my best friends is not doing so well, an incredible person and piano player – it’s been a hard time, so I’m dedicating the show to him. I was living in Tribeca on 9/11, just seven blocks from the towers, combined, it all started to finally come out as I was painting for this exhibit. In the process uncovering things that are leading to a new painterly direction that I feel very good about even though I’m pretty torn up inside. It’s gritty; some of the most powerful work I’ve done on a lot of levels.”
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES – April 18, 2016 – NY-based artist William Quigley unveiled his first solo show in LA in over a decade on April 28 from 6-8pm. The opening was at Karl Hutter Fine Art at 9895 Santa Monica Boulevard in Beverly Hills, California.
Quigley’s work has always tried to tackle both Figurative and Abstraction. Though best known for his portraits, he has made countless purely abstract works over the course of 30 years. From 1980-1985, Quigley studied Art, History, and Film at Philadelphia College of Art, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Tyler School in Rome. His first exhibition, fresh out of Penn in 1985, was with Andy Warhol in Philadelphia at the gallery of famed collector Henry S. McNeil. Quigley attended Columbia University Graduate School of the Arts in 1986 and moved to LA in 1989 after a series of group shows in NY.
Quigley’s big break in LA came from Manny Silverman, who showed his work from 1989 to 1993. He was invited to to paint at the Miro Foundation in Mallorca, Spain in 1992 by way of the LA Art Fair and Galeria Ferran Cano, Miro’s dealer. Cano brought Quigley to his first of three Art Basel exhibitions with Galeria Ferran Cano, where Basel founder, Ernst Beyeler, purchased three of 35 small works that were created in the back storage room of the Fair.
Moving back to LA, he founded the renowned artist-run space Mayb/AB Gallery in 1994 with Pamela Armstrong and Director Dan Bernier. AB Gallery featured artists Marc Chiat, Steve Hurd, Manuel Ocampo, Dan Fisher, Martin Kersels, Russell Crotty, George Stoll, Jason Rhoades, Mike Bismuth and Kevin Sullivan, all of whom have become big names in the contemporary art world. Quigley ventured back to NY in 1999, set up a studio in Chelsea, and eventually moved to Soho where he spent 10 years in his infamous Soho loft. In the first decade of the 21st century he worked with German dealer Arne Zimmerman and painted commissions of former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. Karl Hutter is the first art dealer Quigley has worked with since 2006.
