William Steiger

Solo Exhibitions

Discover the captivating solo exhibitions of William Steiger at Hopkins Wharf Gallery.

2023 Margaret Thatcher Projects, Whistle Stop, New York, NY
2023 Galería Ana Serratosa, Road Less Traveled, Valencia, Spain
2020 Margaret Thatcher Projects, New York New York, New York, NY
2019 Holly Johnson Gallery, InventorDallas, TX
2018 Margaret Thatcher Projects, Ghosts in The Machine, New York, NY
2018 Koki Arts, Float, Tokyo, Japan
2016 Margaret Thatcher Projects, THRILLS New York, NY
2015 Margaret Thatcher Projects, Flight (Project Room), New York, NY
2015 Pace Prints, Explorations & Surveys, New York, NY
2013 Margaret Thatcher Projects, Lucky, New York, NY
2013 Koki Arts, Window Seat, Tokyo, Japan
2012 Gallery Ihn, In Plain View, Seoul, Korea
2011 Roy Boyd Gallery, Rolling Stock, Chicago, IL
2011 Pace Prints, Nickel Plate, New York, NY
2011 Margaret Thatcher Projects, Manufactory, New York, NY
2010 Marcia Wood Gallery, Whirl, Atlanta, GA
2010 Margaret Thatcher Projects, New Collages, New York, NY
2008 Margaret Thatcher Projects, Transport, New York, NY
2008 Holly Johnson Gallery, Destination, Dallas, TX
2008 Richard Levy Gallery, Sugarloaves, Albuquerque, NM
2007 Roy Boyd Gallery, Junction - paintings 1997-2007, Chicago, IL
2006 Margaret Thatcher Projects, Under a Telephone Pole, New York, NY
2005 Marcia Wood Gallery, dreamland, Atlanta, GA
2005 Kenise Barnes Fine Art, DrawPaintDraw, Larchmont, NY
2004 Margaret Thatcher Projects, Land : Mark, New York, NY
2003 Pentimenti Gallery, New Paintings, Philadelphia, PA
2002 Margaret Thatcher Projects, Signal, New York, NY
2002 Queens Museum of Art, 130 ft high, 65 thou gal, 1/2 mile deep..., Queens, NY
2002 Rudolph Projects, Paintings, Houston, TX
2002 Marcia Wood Gallery, New Work, Atlanta, GA
2000 Margaret Thatcher Projects, New Paintings, New York, NY
2000 Marcia Wood Gallery, New Work, Atlanta, GA
1999 Hackett-Freedman Gallery, Landscapes And Mechanical Interventions, San Francisco, CA
1999 Margaret Thatcher Projects, New Paintings, New York, NY
1998 Marcia Wood Gallery, American Landscapes, Atlanta, GA
1996 Condeso/Lawler Gallery, Paintings, New York, NY
1996 Hackett-Freedman Gallery, Recent Paintings, San Francisco, CA
1994 Condeso/Lawler Gallery, Paintings, New York, NY
1994 Hackett-Freedman Gallery, Recent Paintings, San Francisco, CA
1992 Condeso/Lawler Gallery, Paintings, New York, NY
1991 Hackett-Freedman Gallery, Paintings From New York & California, San Francisco, CA
1990 Condeso/Lawler Gallery, Paintings, New York, NY
1990 John Slade Ely House, New Work, New Haven, CT

 

William Steiger’s work has been featured in over 35 solo shows, and numerous more group exhibitions. His oil paintings and collages focus predominantly on buildings and industrial structures, but also looks to the natural world. A graduate of University of California, Santa Cruz and Yale University, Steiger’s art brings a sense of being grounded in location, while also transporting a viewer to the exact spot he depicts. Steiger has exhibited in New York, Japan, Spain, and Germany—to name a few. His influences include Charles Sheeler, Charles Demuth and Ralston Crawford, to which he adds “a strange mix of nostalgia and existential angst,” according to Arts in America.

To accomplish this, Steiger often leaves his backgrounds stark white—isolating his subjects, but never putting them out of place. The Marcia Wood Gallery writes that, “Imagery becomes abstract and reductive yet the seemingly simpler compositions ultimately communicate more through their sparing directness. Limitless space implies endless narrative wherein forms rise from, and meld into, the landscape.” Certainly, this interplay is apparent in his New Yorker series, where his depiction of New York City zeroes in on a specific building—forgoing the skyline in favor of its make-up. Steiger’s careful brushwork makes the Wyndham Hotel’s famous neon sign pop in contrast to the neat, square windows and the missing buildings behind.

Steiger also renders the Maine landscape, featuring the lighthouses, boats, and pine trees of Penobscot Bay. With antique nautical maps and found paper, Steiger reproduces both the craggy rocks and the intricate structures of navigational buoys with his exquisite collages. His Herreshoff collection reproduces the bow of the boat from multiple angles, always pointed toward the center of a stunning vintage sailing chart. In his Maine-inspired works, Steiger incorporates and honors the industrial subjects of his previous paintings, and broadens his horizons to serener, more natural ones as well.

His newer works turn their eyes upwards, using star charts and dark paper to bring celestial bodies down to Earth. In Saturn, for example, the planet seems to glow. Steiger’s use of found-paper collage with acrylic and gouache makes the elements of the piece pop yet stay cohesive. White stars dot the otherwise dark background, but Saturn’s ring, in particular, draws the eye. While Saturn’s actual rings are made up of millions of pieces of ice, Steiger represents them as a single loop. He uses the texture of the paper—layers of cool, blue-green ridges—to effectively evoke the disparate, icy material.

Regardless of the subject, Steiger’s work is always distinctive and captivating. Currently, Steiger lives in New York City with his family. His work can be viewed at the Hopkins Wharf Gallery, on Instagram, and many other art galleries.