williambuzzell Archive

Author's Archive

06.20 2009

Dirtbags invade dirtpalace

William and Joseph Buzzell transform the front window of the Dirt Palace into a “Safety School”.
The installation focuses on presenting information about the plethora of city run and non profit programs, ad campaigns and initiatives designed to help the city of Providence.

Window runs June 13th til July 24th 2009

Opening reception: thursday june 18th, 7-9pm

DIRT PALACE
14 OLNEYVILLE SQUARE
PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND
02909

Posted by williambuzzell on 06/20/2009 in

06.05 2009

Liberal Arts

William Buzzell “Liberal Arts” new paintings about Providence’s library system

Sunday, June 7th, 2009 – 4pm-7pm

AS220 – Street Exhibition Space
115 Empire St.
Providence, RI 02903

AS220 is pleased to display the creations from William Buzzell’s month long artist residency at the organization in our street window exhibition space on Empire St. For the month of May, William has worked closely with staff at the Providence library system, including Richard Ring, head of Special Collections, to delve into the library’s long history. As the son of a librarian himself, a former employee of the Rockefeller Library and the Sciences Library at Brown University, and also a generally avid user of libraries for both pleasure and for the meticulous research his work requires, libraries make a decidedly natural subject matter for Buzzell. Culminating from this work is a large sculptural painting evoking library bookshelves, its contents offering both inherent analysis and objective glimpses of aspects of the Providence Library system from its 1875 conception to the current day. Buzzell states, “Although there are failures and problems in the Providence Public Library, I hope the painting will reflect the dedicated people, the various community outreach programs, and the admirable mission statement of the PPL as well. I strive for this work to be an unbiased portrait of a complicated library system in a struggling post-industrial city in the present period of technological advancement and economic slowdown.”

William Buzzell creates highly detailed, painstakingly rendered paintings from everyday, rough materials, most commonly house paint and found wood. His use of 3D sculptural elements in many of his pieces is also noteworthy and characteristic of many of his works. Buzzell obsessively researches his topics and experiments visually with the organization and presentation of the synthesized information. Subjects explored range from class issues, identity, modern culture, science, history, and the arts and share the aesthetic of science fair projects, natural history museum displays, and public service announcements. Since 2005, William Buzzell has had several solo shows in New York, California, and Canada. Over the last eight years, Buzzell has also played his part in numerous group shows across the United States and has exhibited his artwork as far as London, Stolkholm, and the Philippines.

William Buzzell was born and raised in Providence, Rhode Island and is often associated with the now legendary art community that flourished there in the late 90’s. Some of his work was published in the late, Paper Rodeo, an anthology of Providence comics and art. Buzzell also attended Parsons The New School for Design in New York City where he pursued illustration. He currently resides in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as part of the Space 1026 artist collective. He loves to remind everyone that he is a proud Eagle Scout.

For more information about the artist, the exhibit, the AIR program or AS220 please contact:

Cheryl Kaminsky
AS220 Communications Director
401.831.9327
cheryl@as220.org

Posted by williambuzzell on 06/05/2009 in

events

06.02 2009

Really Nice Old Phillies Stuff I Got When My Godfather Passed Away

Finished my May Artist in Residency at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island. The work is going to be in a window display at AS220 on June 7th

Posted by williambuzzell on 06/02/2009 in

05.22 2009

Historic Corliss Engine Negatives Printed for Photo Lottery!

Why hide behind this incredible photograph of the historic Corliss Steam engine invented in Providence RI? Clearly it is because I can’t compete! This photograph was contact printed from the original 20×24″ glass negatives loaned to the AS220 Darkroom from the special collection of the Providence Public Library. There will be more about this exciting collaboration soon. The 2009 Photo Lottery will have numerous photographs produced from the glass negatives from this collection. See what Providence looked like 100 years ago. Who was being photographed and what were they wearing? For your chance to win one of these three photographs of the Corliss Steam engine, and 147 other fantastic photographs buy tickets at www.as220.org/photolottery or at the AS220 Bar.

xoxo
As220 Artist in Residence,
William Buzzell

Posted by williambuzzell on 05/22/2009 in

05.22 2009

Photo Lottery 2009 May 30th at AS220

Dear Friends,

As many of you know, I recently joined forces with a righteous local
arts organization in Providence RI by the name of AS220
(www.as220.org). Every other year AS220’s photo program holds a
“Photo Lottery,” which generates funds to cover the expenses of
running a darkroom/photography program that is open to the public and
the free of charge classes and access we provide to young people
(15-21) who would not otherwise have these opportunities. It is the
only public darkroom facility in the state and I think we would all
agree that its important to keep such a place afloat with our personal
support if we are able.

I’m writing to invite you to purchase a ticket for this year’s Photo
Lottery, which is coming up at the end of this month. Purchasing a
ticket for the Photo Lottery is not only a donation that supports a
great non-profit–it is an investment in growing an artistic
community–and it’s an exciting and potentially profitable move for
yourself! This year photographs have been donated from talented local
photographers, as well as from internationally famous photographers,
such as Danny Lyon (classic print from the Bikeriders series), Jock
Sturges (color panorama over 4 ft in length), Henry Horenstein, Denny
Moers and Mona Kuhn. There are many amazing photographs that will be
given away, some of which are worth big bucks! My favorite part about
the Photo Lottery, and something that makes it unique from many other
raffle-like fundraisers, is that EVERYONE who buys a ticket wins a
photograph.

Whether or not you live in Providence, it’s easy to participate by
buying a ticket at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/63945 If
you’re an out of town friend, as most of you are, postage anywhere in
the states is a $15 flat fee and I will personally assist the darkroom
to get your piece shipped out to you safely. Just let me know that
you signed up, so I can look out for your piece. We will make sure
that whoever draws the numbers, has nothing at stake in who wins the
pricey prizes, so don’t let that concern you one bit.

And whether or not you buy a ticket, if you can make it to Providence,
please attend the Photo Lottery celebration on the evening of May 30th
– free of charge. Here’s the website for more info:
http://www.as220.org/photolottery/ Or, to see some of the prints that
will be in the lottery: http://www.as220.org/photolottery/artists.htm

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions about it and
to forward or blog this info in any way you see fit–please tell
anyone and everyone who you think might be interested!

Posted by williambuzzell on 05/22/2009 in

events

05.22 2009

Photo Lottery 2009 May 30th at AS220

Dear Friends,

Please feel free to let me know if you have any questions about it and
to forward or blog this info in any way you see fit–please tell
anyone and everyone who you think might be interested!

Posted by williambuzzell on 05/22/2009 in

03.26 2009

Review of "CONTACT HIGH" in Toronto

William Buzzell
Contact High: Study Aids and Learning Tools

BY David Balzer March 25, 2009 21:03

To Apr 18. Wed-Sat 11am-5pm. Paul Bright Gallery, 1265 Bloor W. 647-342-5463. www.paulbrightgallery.com.

Good, cheap art alert: most of the prices at up-and-comer William Buzzells mind-blowing show hover just below $1,000. OK, so thats not a pittance, especially not for the kind of spendthrift, chronic young audience Buzzells art is liable to attract. (The exhibit, as painted in scrappy block letters on a couple of boards in Paul Bright Gallerys window, is called Contact High.) Still, think of how blown you could get just by looking at one of his pieces every day.

Buzzell was born in Providence, Rhode Island and his art looks it. (PBGs press release makes the most of this, telling us that he now works with Philadelphias Space 1026, a collectively run artists space similar to the now demolished Fort Thunder.) His cartoonish style is a stunningly personal yet strongly resonant comment on contemporary ephemera. Everything is made painstakingly and idiosyncratically by hand. Buzzells media are wood and house paint, and he is indeed like an amateur carpenter, affixing cut-out shapes to his substrates with nails, which you can see through the paint. The approach, made manifest in the piece Structure and Optical Properties, is science-fair savant. In that piece, Buzzell shows us, hilariously, the grade he thinks a teacher would give his projects: C-, not because he didnt make something beautiful and detailed, but because his tendencies towards beauty and detail inevitably cause him to, as teach puts it, veer off topic.

But as an artist rather than a budding scientist, Buzzell is completely on task. Each piece is a world of its own, a riff-filled visual essay in the grand tradition of Hieronymus Bosch. There is so much to look at: scrawled, cramped writing; saturated colours; verbal and visual puns and allusions. Each work is an instructive game in Scholastic Summer Reading List Sticker Sheet you can match up classic literary titles with quaint illustrations of their famous scenes and in Black Mixed With Sunlight and Firelight Turns Crimson you can compare and contrast colour wheels from throughout history but also a quiet manifesto on how to approach representational art in an age of rapid cultural consumption and its attendant, abundant trash. Buzzell subverts collage, fabricating each of his clippings by hand in order to emphasize their weird symbolism, and their own, pretty integrity.
EYEWEEKLY.COM

Posted by williambuzzell on 03/26/2009 in