Curtis Ripley: High Fidelity Opening

Santa Monica, CA - William Turner Gallery is pleased to present Curtis Ripley: High Fidelity, an exhibition of new paintings by Curtis Ripley opening April 25, 5-8 PM, and on view through June 20, 2026. The exhibition unfolds as a visual composition: lyrical, atmospheric, and finely attuned to the rhythms of perception.

In Ripley’s paintings, glimmers of paint flicker and flare across darkened grounds, activating the surface with a sense of movement and light. Gestural curls and swirls interact with lines and dashes that guide the viewer’s eye in a choreographed passage across the picture plane. These marks are not merely expressive—they are structural, establishing a sense of tempo and poetic cadence that gives each work its internal coherence.

Forms in Ripley’s work do not resolve immediately. They hover, coalesce, and dissolve, shifting in and out of focus as the viewer’s attention lingers. Color behaves similarly: shapes emerge from the ground only to recede again, creating a continuous interplay between presence and disappearance.

Curtis Ripley, Dreaming in Color, 2026, oil on canvas, 40 x 30”.

The result is a dynamic tension between flatness and depth that remains deliberately unsettled. This instability gives rise to a pronounced sense of atmosphere. Gestural forms drift across layered fields of tone, while Ripley’s palette moves between moments of luminous intensity and expanses of saturated darkness. Subtle gradations of color produce fleeting effects — recalling distant light, reflective shimmer, or the charged stillness of a landscape at dusk. The paintings unfold perceptually, revealing themselves over time rather than at a glance.

Ripley’s practice occupies a space between the gestural immediacy of Abstract Expressionism and the immersive chromatic sensibility of Color Field painting. His work synthesizes these traditions into a contemporary language grounded in process, layering, and revision. While resonant with historical explorations of light and atmosphere, his paintings remain distinctly present—open-ended, responsive, and experiential.

Curtis ripley, Silver Springs, 2026, oil on canvas, 60” x 48

Presented concurrently with Unrepentant Beauty by Roland Reiss, High Fidelity offers a complementary approach to perception—one grounded not in constructed illusion, but in painterly sensation and temporal experience.

Throughout a career spanning more than four decades, Curtis Ripley has exhibited nationally and internationally, with an extensive record of solo exhibitions. Born in Lubbock, Texas in 1949, he received his MFA from the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1975.

Now Representing Roland Reiss

William Turner Gallery is honored to announce our representation of the estate of Roland Reiss (1929–2020), one of the most distinctive and intellectually rigorous voices in postwar American art. This partnership reflects the gallery's commitment to championing significant legacies in contemporary art history and ensuring that Reiss's pioneering body of work continues to reach new audiences.

Though widely celebrated for his miniature tableaux, Reiss was first and foremost a painter whose more than sixty-year career left an indelible mark on the Los Angeles and Southern California art scenes. He was included in the 1975 Whitney Biennial and Documenta 7 in 1982, and received fourteen solo museum exhibitions over the course of his career, including The Dancing Lessons: 12 Sculptures (1977) at LACMA. He also received survey exhibitions at the Pasadena Museum of Contemporary Art (2011–2012) and exhibited at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C., and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. A retrospective of his work was mounted at the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery in 1991.

Reiss studied at the American Academy of Art, Mount San Antonio College, and UCLA, graduating with an MA in 1957. He taught at the University of Colorado, UCLA, and Claremont Graduate University, where he chaired the art department for thirty years. In 2009, he received the College Art Association Award for Distinguished Teaching of Art. At CGU he held the Benezet Chair in the Humanities, and in 2010 an endowed chair in art was established in his name. He was also director of The Painting’s Edge residency at Idyllwild Arts.

Reiss received four NEA grants and numerous prizes and awards. His work is held in many significant public and private collections, including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hammer Museum, Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Palm Springs Art Museum, UC Irvine Langson Orange County Museum of Art, Laguna Art Museum, Benton Museum of Art, Claremont Lewis Museum of Art, and Oakland Museum of California.

Guillermo Bert's Upcoming Solo Show at the Museum of Latin American Ar

Congratulations to Guillermo Bert on his upcoming solo show, Techno-Empathy, opening at the Museum of Latin American Art on March 29.

This exhibition shows the Chilean-born artist Guillermo Bert bringing the two together in novel and powerful ways. He uses three principal tools, all of them uncommon in most art production: QR codes, 3-D imaging, and laser engraving. In the Encoded Textiles series, weavings include QR codes that literally embed the story of the weaver into the work so that anyone with a smartphone can see and hear them. Through 3-D imaging, the artist creates life-size images of workers whom he has met, allowing us also to meet them face to face from a unique perspective. Media images today often show migrants and refugees, but Bert uses laser engraving to transfer them onto unusual surfaces, such as wood panels that mimic the look of some of the earliest “high technology:” the rectangular panels that encoded instructions for the first mechanical looms in the 19th century.

Guillermo Bert At William Turner Gallery

Charles Arnoldi in The Hollywood Reporter

Congratulations to Charles Arnoldi for his recent feature in Michael Slenske's article "Guns and Glitter: How LA's Top Artists Reimagine the Oscar" for The Hollywood Reporter!

Charles Arnoldi

Slenske writes: For this portfolio, [Arnoldi] did something he almost never does: “I don’t really think about the Oscars, and I don’t make figurative work,” he says. “But there’s a human quality to this particular sculpture because it has legs and these morphing human forms. I guess you could say that’s a commentary on the chaos that accompanies the Oscars race every year.”

Read the full article at the link below!

InConversation: Alex Couwenberg (LA) Mark Zimmermann (NY) Talk All Things Art

In a newly shared video interview, artist Alex Couwenberg discusses his art practice and latest show with fellow artist Mark Zimmermann. Couwenberg’s solo show, “Highline” opened at William Turner Gallery on September 13. The show was recommended on social media by art critic Mat Gleason who said, “Couwenberg is at the top of his game… [his paintings] seem improvisational and yet are rigorously constructed and thought out”. You can view the digital catalog for “Highline” at the link below.

COAGULA Curatorial Reviews Alex Couwenberg: HIGHLINE

Coagula Curatorial

Mat Gleason founder of Coagula Curatorial reviews Alex Couwenberg’s exhibition Highline that closed at the gallery November 8.

View the catalog for this important exhibition by clicking HERE. You can view the instagram reel review of Highline by clicking the image or the button below.

MARK STEVEN GREENFIELD - RE/DEFINED - Opening at the IAAM, Charleston, SC on June 12, 2025

On Thursday, June 12th at 6 pm the International African American Museum, (Charleston, SC)  is hosting Blackness re/Defined | An Evening of Art & Conversation (IAAM Community) a special celebration marking the public opening of our newest special exhibition, re/Defined: Creative Expressions of Blackness from the Diaspora. 

This dynamic evening will explore the transformative role of Black artists and cultural producers in shaping identity, resisting systemic erasure, and redefining Blackness across generations and geographies. Through conversation and performance, the IAAM will examine how creative expression serves as both a reflection of lived experience and a powerful assertion of agency within the African Diaspora.

The evening will feature a live jazz performance, a curated dialogue between artists and scholars, and exclusive curator-led exhibition tours with Suzanne DiBella and Isabelle Britto. Curator-led tours will begin at 6:00 pm and 6:30 pm with the Music & Conversation Program beginning at 7:00 pm.

Mark Steven Greenfield, Dessalines, 2022, AcrlYic and Gold Leaf on Wood Panel, 20" X 16"

RE/DEFINED

14 Wharfside Street — Charleston, SC 29401
843-872-5352

EXPO 2025 - JAPAN PAVILION - A Creator’s Vision - Artist Shingo Francis

Fleeting Colors in Transition and a Circle Symbolizing Circulation

I believe my decision to become a painter was greatly influenced by my parents and my early environment. My father is American, my mother is Japanese, and I lived in Japan until I was 12 before moving to the United States to live with my father. My father was an abstract painter, and my mother was a video artist. Many of their friends were also artists, and they would often gather at our home or in studios, passionately discussing their works and creative processes. Interestingly, my first interest in artistic expression wasn’t painting — it was words. While browsing my father’s bookshelf filled with poetry collections, I became inspired to write my own poems and essays. By the time I was about 15, I discovered William Blake, the English poet and painter, which encouraged me to start adding illustrations to my poetry. Whenever I returned to Japan, my mother would take me to galleries in Tokyo. I remember being amazed by the diverse range of artistic expression — intriguing objects, sound installations, and more — which opened my eyes to the fascinating and expansive world of art.

At university, I studied traditional techniques like croquis, but I soon realized that faithfully reproducing what I saw in front of me wasn’t my strength. Instead, I became more focused on expressing what I felt in my heart. One of the turning points in my life came when I studied abroad in Florence. During that time, I had the opportunity to interact with Joan Mitchell, a friend of my father and an abstract expressionist artist. Upon seeing my work, she immediately urged me to “invent your own way of painting.” Her words were a wake-up call — lines, colors, shapes, depth, techniques, and processes should all be uniquely mine; no one else could express what I wanted to create. That encounter made me seriously reflect on how to translate my inner visions into paintings. Through much exploration, I eventually arrived at the layering technique that I still use today. By building up layers, light, shadow, and depth emerge naturally, revealing a sense of presence. This approach reflects my fascination with the fleeting beauty of light within darkness, much like the world depicted in Junichiro Tanizaki’s In Praise of Shadows. It’s this delicate balance — the interplay of light and shadow — that continues to inspire my work.

I was deeply shocked when I heard a curator say they made all their curation decisions solely through social media, without ever seeing the actual artworks. To me, art is something you must experience with your own eyes — it’s only through that direct encounter that emotions are stirred and a dialogue with the work begins. Sharing space with an artwork and observing it firsthand carries profound meaning. Reflecting on this idea led me to create this series. In these paintings, the colors shift depending on the viewer’s position and the angle of the light, much like a butterfly’s wings or the iridescent patterns of a jewel beetle. The pigments, which include mica, reflect light in a way that alters the visual tone. One of the key themes of this series is the awareness of one’s own physical presence — an invitation to reconnect with the act of seeing through the senses.

When creating abstract paintings, I make a conscious effort to focus on my own awareness. Being fully present in the “here and now” is incredibly challenging, yet I find constant inspiration in Zen philosophy. One particularly memorable experience was a Zen training session I attended at Tōfuku-ji Temple in Kyoto when I was 17. For about ten days, we practiced meditation from early morning until night, sitting in zazen and focusing solely on our breathing. At first, I struggled to concentrate — my mind kept racing with thoughts and memories, like a mental carousel spinning endlessly. The frustration was intense, but by the fifth or sixth day, my chaotic thoughts gradually began to settle. Then, about a week in… it happened — just for a brief moment. Everything before me — the stones and trees in the garden, the monk sitting beside me, and even myself — seemed to merge into one. It was an indescribable sensation, as if I had transcended my physical senses. That fleeting moment of connection has stayed with me ever since.

Throughout my artistic journey, I’ve explored various themes, but it was around 2021 — when I moved to Kamakura — that the circle became a central motif in my work. I see the circle as the simplest yet most powerful symbol of cycles — the endless loop of life and death, the changing of seasons, and the flow of time itself. Kamakura has a remarkably slow pace of life, surrounded by rich nature. Compared to Los Angeles, where I used to live — a place with little sense of seasonal change — I now feel much more attuned to the rhythms of nature and the passage of time. The abundance of temples and shrines here has also been a source of inspiration for my work. On a side note, I recently learned about Ensō, a Zen painting by Sengai Gibon, a monk and artist from the Edo period. In his famous work ○△□, some interpret the circle as symbolizing “nature,” the square as “humanity,” and the triangle as “the universe.” I find that perspective fascinating — another beautiful reflection of interconnected cycles.

Born in Santa Monica, California in 1969, Shingo Francis is an artist based in Los Angeles and Kamakura. His work explores the expansiveness of space and spirituality in painting. Francis has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions both in Japan and internationally, including at the DIC Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art (2012), the Durst Organization (2013), the Sezon Museum of Modern Art (2018), the Martin Museum of Art (2019), Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum (2023), and the Chigasaki City Museum of Art (2024). His works are held in collections such as the JPMorgan Chase Art Collection, Banco de España, the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation, the Mori Art Collection, the Sezon Museum of Modern Art, the Oketa Collection, the Tokyo American Club, the Ueshima Collection, and Tiffany & Co.

HYPERALLERGIC Names Mark Steven Greenfield a top 10 show to see in October

Mark Steven Greenfield, “Saartjie Baartman” (2020), gold leaf and acrylic on wood panel, 24 x 24 inches (~61 x 61 cm) (photo by Rob Brander, courtesy William Turner Gallery)

Auras features two bodies of paintings by Mark Steven Greenfield — Black Madonna (2020) and HALO (2022) — that reconsider the breadth of the Black experience in the Americas by excavating and reframing contested histories. HALO comprises portraits of influential Black figures, from the revered to the lesser-known, including Haitian Revolution leader Toussaint Louverture, famed magician Black Herman, and silhouette artist Moses Williams — formerly enslaved by Charles Willson Peale — portrayed as saintly icons surrounded by gold leaf. Black Madonna depicts a beatific ebony Madonna and child, while Ku Klux Klan members and monuments to white supremacy are vanquished and toppled in the background.

Scot Heywood Exhibition

SCOT HEYWOOD

Born in Los Angeles in 1951, Scot Heywood has been investigating geometric abstraction for over forty years. “I painted flat from the get-go,” Heywood says, who has explored abstraction throughout the course of his artistic career. A self-taught artist, Heywood’s works are indebted to the origins of geometric abstraction. In the late 1970s, Heywood fell in love with the paintings of Piet Mondrian and John McLaughlin; since then, he has been translating the austere philosophy of geometric abstraction into his own monochromatic works. 

Ranging in scale from intimate to encompassing, his paintings consist of multiple, colored canvases, connected in staggered, patchwork patterns. In a seemingly endless array of variations, he inserts thin strips between, or attaches them to the sides of, square and rectangular canvases, intentionally misaligning them to create delightfully disruptive, staccato visual rhythms. Heywood is interested in the relationship between wall, work, and viewer, and in the rich dialogue between color and form.

Heywood has shown extensively in Southern California since the late 1970’s at such as significant galleries as Patricia Faure Gallery, Frank Lloyd Gallery, ACE Contemporary Exhibitions and Subliminal Projects Gallery. His work has been featured in dozens of solo shows, and is often included in significant group exhibitions at The Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art, San Francisco Art Institute and Otis College of Art & Design. Heywood’s work has been featured in publications such as the Los Angeles Times, Art in America, Art Slant, LA Weekly and Artweek. His paintings are also represented in numerous public and private collections, including the Frederick Weisman Foundation. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Melanie Pullen + Shana Nys Dambrot - INCONVERSATION - June 19 @ 7PM

Please join us Wednesday, June 19, 2024 at 7PM for a conversation between art writer Shana Nys Dambrot and photographer Melanie Pullen.  Doors open at 6PM and the talk will begin at 7PM.  There will be refreshments served complimentary of the gallery and signed copies of Melanie’s exhibition catalog VOYEUR will be available for purchase.  

Shana Nys Dambrot is an art critic, curator, and author based in Downtown LA. Formerly the Arts Editor at the L.A. Weekly, she is the co-founder of 13ThingsLA, and a contributor to the Village Voice, Flaunt, Artillery, and other culture publications. She studied Art History at Vassar College, and is the recipient of the Rabkin Prize for Art Criticism, the Mozaik Future Art Writers Prize, and the LA Press Club National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Critic of the Year award. Her surrealist novel Zen Psychosis (Griffith Moon) was published in 2020.

Melanie Pullen’s (b. 1975) photography has been shown in major museums and galleries internationally and is permanently in the holdings of many of the most prominent public and private collections around the world including: Colección Jump, Mexico City, Mexico; Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Jacksonville, Florida; The Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University, Malibu, California; Nasher Museum of Contemporary Art, North Carolina; Howard Stein & the Forward Thinking Collection, New York, New York; Walker Art Center Museum, Minnesota; The Rand Collection, Santa Monica, California. Most recently the Getty Museum acquired several pieces from her High Fashion Crime Scenes which now reside in their permanent collection after being included in their exhibition: Icons of Style: 100 Years of Fashion Photography.

Her work has been featured in a number of publications including: The New York Times T Magazine; Los Angeles Times; Vogue; Esquire Magazine; ELLE; London’s Independent; Spin Magazine; W Magazine; Flaunt Magazine; 1814 Magazine; Rolling Stone Magazine and Vanity Fair. Pullen has published three photography books. Melanie was awarded the D&D Yellow Pencil Award. She currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.

Pullen has published numerous books of her photography with notable fine-art publishers such as: Nazraeli Press and most recently in 2020 with Kodansha Press, in Japan.