Painting Reasons

Michael Williams Painting Reasons November 03, 2026 – January 23, 2027 All objects have their own qualities, which either interest us or do not. Many of them are extensions of ourselves–things we have explicitly shaped to serve our own needs. Tools. They are supposed to be subordinate to our will. And most of the time, we don’t even think about our tools; they are simply there. But when a tool–or an object–fails to function as expected, its excess of being is suddenly revealed to us. Take, for example, one’s wife’s old membership card for a food co-op, which only gains significance after it has lost its function. Suddenly, the object captivates us with its colors and proportions, with the minimalist balance of typography, information, and barcode.