American / 1967

William Brovelli is a contemporary visual artist. His ink drawings on canvas and paper display iterations of a semi-abstract figure. Each figure is set within a vertical ink wash cell and arranged in a grid format. The works on paper are fixed while the works on canvas are ongoing with figures added, altered, or replaced daily.

“A febrile sensation of contingency that courses through William Brovelli's Timeline paintings and works on paper is a signifier of the artist's concern with process, duration and the experience of limits. - These works seem to hide, boldly, in plain view. They present themselves and then withdraw just as equally. Yet they are insistent and move forward, intractably, relentlessly in their underplayed way. - Brovelli's work is unselfconsciously inventive, deeply involved in small visual pleasures, doesn't strive for great significance, values small throwaway details and idiosyncrasy, and is intimate without being precious.”

Excerpt from the Lingering Immaterialities of William Brovelli (2010) by art critic Dominique Nahas