BILL CARROLL | Trees | WAITING ROOM

April 13 - May 16, 2025

VIEW EXHIBITION

I have been painting New York City for many years.  On long urban hikes through all five boroughs I use a small pad and black pen to make quick line drawings of all seen.  Buildings, bridges, signs, water towers, and most recently, trees.  New York has many amazing forests.  This past year I have spent a lot of time drawing the trees in Queens in Forest Park, and in the Bronx in Pelham Bay and Van Cortlandt Parks. I then use the simple drawings to make paintings in acrylic on paper or panel.  The finished paintings retain the simplicity and spontaneity of the original drawings.  The most recent tree paintings in this show are in black and white acrylic on panel.  Titled simply ‘Trees’ they are images of the forest in winter.  I am fascinated by the variety and beauty of the differently shaped trunks and by the patterns the branches make as they overlap.  It has been satisfying to shift my gaze from the urban built environment to document this natural and essential part of the city.

Bill Carroll has been involved in the New York Art World for over forty years as Artist, Curator, Teacher, and Arts Administrator.  He was the Director of the Charles Cowles Gallery in Soho; and the Elizabeth Harris Gallery in Chelsea. Bill also worked in non-profit at the Dia Art Foundation, the Brooklyn Museum, and was the Director of the EFA Studio Program from 2010 to 2023.  At Pratt Institute, for 13 years, he taught an MFA course titled Art World & Professionalism, and has lectured including at NYFA, NYU, Cranbrook, Bard College, SVA, Columbia, Cornell, and F.I.T.  Bill has shown his own work extensively and had seven solo exhibitions with the Elizabeth Harris Gallery in Chelsea.  The most recent was in January 2024. It was titled Living in the City and was accompanied by a catalogue with essay by David Ebony.  In 2016 he did an installation of fifty-six paintings at the Mid-Manhattan branch of the New York Public titled New York: My City.  Bill’s work has been reviewed many times, including in Art in America.  Born in the Bronx, he has lived in the East Village since 1981.