Hillman + Chavez

PRESS RELEASE

Affirmation Arts is pleased to announce the opening of Hillman + Chavez on September 19, 2008. The exhibition inaugurates the collaboration of William T. Hillman and Lia Chavez. A book, with an introduction by Gary Sangster, accompanies the exhibition. Both artists will be present at the September 19th reception from 6-8pm.

Thirteen large, unique photographic works created within the past year will be exhibited. These innovative photographs explore light and space, while abstractly presenting the figure as form. Sangster writes “For Hillman + Chavez the lure of light coupled with the lure of the body – in particular bodies in motion or bodies under tension, physical or psychological – is accentuated through the elaboration of a new, hybrid photographic technique that enmeshes digital photography, with traditional photography and the static silhouette system of the photogram.”

Trained as a painter and academic, William T. Hillman studied landscape painting at the Lacoste School of the Arts in France and portraiture and anatomy at the Art Students League in New York City. He received an MA and an MBA from Princeton and Columbia Universities. He has experimented throughout his career, moving from painting to montage to computer-digitized photographic images. Recently represented by Barry Friedman Ltd. and shown at Splash, at the Leila Taghinia-Milani Heller Gallery in New York, Hillman will be included in TINA B. -The Prague Contemporary Art Festival: Forms of Engagement in the fall of 2008. Hillman, American born in 1954, lives and works in New York City.

Lia Chavez studied art and art history in Florence, Italy, and at Goldsmiths College, University of London, as well as gender theory, anthropology, and visual cultures at the International Gender Studies Center, University of Oxford. Her multimedia work, which focuses on photography, has been exhibited in London, New York, and Europe. Recent exhibitions include Lifeblood, at Samuel Klein Contemporary Art, London; Shot and Go: A Vision of Today’s International Photography, Venice, Italy; and Nightcomers, Tenth International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul. Chavez, American born in 1978, lives and works in London.