Hap Gallery is proud to announce Camouflage, a painting exhibition by New York artist Didier William. William carves, paints, draws, pours, gouges, and stains the surface of his paintings to create the vibrant works. He constructs bodies and spaces through the interplay between colors, shapes, forms, and textures. Tension between human form and the surrounding space suggest that William’s abstracted figures are dissolving into—or are being dissolved by—the environment.

The tenuous figure/ground relationships in Camouflage point to a specific disharmony with rational space and bodies that seem to be perpetually at odds with the places they occupy. They stare back at the viewer, not to give or ask for empathy, but to return a focused gaze and deny the viewer’s curious projection.

Didier William received an MFA in painting from Yale School of Art, and a BFA in painting from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA.) He was a 2009 recipient of the Toby Devan Lewis Fellowship in painting as well as the 2006 recipient of the Morris Lewis Award for painting. He has exhibited paintings in group shows at Kravets Wehby gallery in New York, Deitch Projects in Long Island City, Swann Galeries in New York City, and Gallerie Schuster in Berlin. He was a 2012/13 Artist in Residence at the Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundations’ Space Program in Brooklyn NY. William is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Art and Art History Department at Vassar College, and he currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.