Brian Willmont: Manufacturing Desire

Time Equities, Inc. Art-in-Buildings is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition in the lobby of 55 Fifth Ave, Brian Willmont: Manufacturing Desire.

Brian Willmont’s immersive installations navigate the ideals of beauty, desire, and representation in a digital age. Using traditional motifs such as flowers and butterflies, Willmont manipulates his images to create a highly stylized and synthetic illustration of the natural world. His modified depictions of nature reflect on our daily consumption of beauty as filtered through a digital screen.

Willmont’s practice seamlessly weaves the digital and analog worlds. He begins with original airbrushed paintings, isolating elements from them to digitally compose his elaborate wallpaper patterns. Further complicating the relationship between the handmade and machine-made, Willmont layers his wallpaper installations with the original canvases, creating a tromp l’oeil effect as the two planes of work converge. By continually reimagining his motifs in various digital forms, he removes them from their original context and imbues them with a new, manufactured beauty.

In Manufacturing Desire, Willmont continues this exploration of perception and reality, choosing the beautiful but highly poisonous flame lily as a backdrop for the space. Painted in inviting pink and turquoise tones, the flowered wallpaper draws the viewer into its deceptively comfortable beauty. Dancing across the backdrop are equally inviting butterflies in soft pastel shades, roses dotted with perfect dew drops, and a fragmented figure that seamlessly blurs the line between the original paintings and the new, manufactured decor. In the lobby of 55 5th, Willmont appeals to and critiques the audience’s experience of the work, allowing for the opportunity to reflect on our own consumption of its beauty as we migrate through the space.

_________________________________________________________________

Brian Willmont (b. Boston, MA) is an artist and curator based in Brooklyn, New York. He earned a BFA from the Massachusetts College of Art and graduated with High Distinction. Willmont has mounted solo exhibitions at VICTORI + MO (NY), Guerrero Gallery (CA), Driscoll Babcock (NY), Field Projects (NY), LaMontagne Gallery (MA) and others. His work has been included in group exhibitions at Asya Geisberg (NY), Andrew Edlin (NY), Spring Break Art Show (NY), Allouche Gallery (NY, The Hole (NY), Mrs. Gallery (NY), Steinsland Berliner (NY), County Gallery (FL), Spring Break (NY), Frieze (UK), and many others. Willmont has an upcoming exhibition at the Albany Museum of Art in Albany, Georgia. In addition to his art practice, Willmont runs Greenpoint Terminal Gallery in Brooklyn.

Photos by Ethan Browning.

For press inquiries contact: QUINN | TEI@quinn.pr | 212.868.1900

_______________________________________________________________

Brian Willmont: Manufacturing Desire is curated by Tessa Ferreyros and sponsored by the Time Equities Inc. (TEI) Art-in-Buildings. TEI is committed to enriching the experience of our properties through the Art-in-Buildings Program, an innovative approach that brings contemporary art by emerging and mid-career artists to non-traditional exhibition spaces in the interest of promoting artists, expanding the audience for art, and creating a more interesting environment for our building occupants, residents, and their guests.