BILL SULLIVAN | Books, Prints and Paintings
March 3 - April 15, 2016
Opening Reception: March 3rd, 6-9pm
New York – 57W57 ARTS is pleased to announce Books, Prints and Paintings, an exhibition in its Main Gallery and Project Space featuring the work of Bill Sullivan. The artist will present a selection of various new and older works connected to the game of tennis produced over the past 8 years. On view are paintings, prints and limited edition publications reflecting his multi-disciplinary approach to image making and painting as it pertains to tennis’s unique relationship to architecture, design, fashion and art.
The blueprint of a tennis court is a central current that ties much of the work in the exhibition together. Sullivan uses this blueprint to address questions on the nature of abstraction. Sullivanʼs own particular blueprint of a tennis court is used as the starting point and framework for positioning the court as a grid and a theatre; tennis for him is used as a metaphorical and structural device for an inquiry into exploring conditions of the image and projection.
Also available for viewing are Sullivan’s prototypes and ancillary publications for his 2014 book, “Forest Hills.” Drawn to the storied, multi-surface grounds of its once-revered Grand Slam stadium, in "Forest Hills” Sullivan has composed a bold amalgam of photographs and design-based imagery that deftly merges historical record with elusive fantasy. The artist states: “The tennis world in this book functions as an alternate or parallel art world where there is a constant change in our understanding of form and meaning over specific periods of time.”
Bill Sullivan (b. 1965) lives and works in NYC. In 1988 he graduated from Georgetown University with a degree in English and Fine Arts. His prints, books and paintings have been widely shown in both US and international exhibitions and are in the permanent collections of MOMA and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, among others. He has completed several large bodies of work in the past 10 years including 3 Situations - made up of 30,000 photographs taken clandestinely of people, culminating in a major installation at the Pearson International Airport in Toronto in 2012. Since 2009, Sullivan has worked on a series of books of his own design, including "MATTER" (2013), "Forest Hills" (2014), "Reckless Spring” (2015), and “Permanent Fun” (2016). In 2014 he helped found S U N, an independent publishing company based in New York City. He has helped design and publish over 12 books for artists over the last 2 years.