Independent New York

William Wright

Pier 36, Booth 208

May 14—17, 2026

William Wright (b. 1971, Nottingham, UK) is a London-based artist who raises the sublunary into the realm of art historical collective consciousness– drawing a continuum between painting of the past and a still life of the present.

Inspired by artists such as Philip Guston, Giorgio Morandi, and James Castle, Wright’s paintings of intimate scale and muted palette evolve over several months through a gradual process of charcoal studies, building up paint with cold wax, sanding, and re-painting over multiple layers. This meditative process imbues a unique sense of time, contemplation, and texture throughout the work. Archiving the objects that populate his home and studio– from bowls of fruit to wilting flowers, paint brushes to opened windows– his chosen subjects map a steady record of observation, the passing of time. Each item is distilled down to its inherent objecthood through an economy of line and solidity. His compositions are layered through delicate deliberations; a texture of accretion underlines the studious rigour at the heart of Wright’s dense work.

Wright explores how memory shifts to imagination, observation into association. The phrasing of an object becomes accented by the union of the canon: a skull here, a timepiece there, the language of the domestic bleeding into art historical trope and tradition. As subjects are revisited, they accumulate additional character, furnishing them with an air of friendly familiarity.

Wright studied at Leeds Metropolitan University, and since has held solo exhibitions at Josh Lilley, London, UK (2024); Sea View, Los Angeles, CA (2024); Galerie Ariane C-Y, Paris, FR (2023); Seventh House Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2022); Lyndsey Ingram, London, UK (2022); and The Art Stable, Dorset, UK (2019). Select group exhibitions include Micki Meng Gallery, New York, NY (2024); Sea View, Los Angeles, CA (2024); Charleston, East Sussex, UK (2022); Lyndsay Ingram, London, UK (2021); Galerie Ariane C-Y, Paris, FR (2020); and The Eagle Gallery, London, UK (2019).

Press

Hyperallergic “Independent Art Fair Trades Downtown for the World” by Lisa Yin Zhang