Willa Wasserman

Willa Wasserman delves into the haunted essence of painting, exploring irony, criticality, and historical legacy within the canvas, especially in the Western context, marked by recurring ruptures and negations. 

Biography of Willa Wasserman

Willa Wasserman was born in 1990 in Evansville, Indiana, and currently resides in New York.

In 2011, Wasserman attended Academie Minerva in Groningen, the Netherlands, where she did not obtain a degree. In 2013, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College in New York. In 2019, the artist completed her education with a Master of Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles, California.

Wasserman's solo exhibitions have taken place in diverse locations, including High Art in Paris, François Ghebaly in Los Angeles, Downs & Ross in New York, and various other venues in cities like Chicago and Santa Monica.

Willa Wasserman's Art Style

Willa Wasserman figures, still lifes, or landscapes employ an ancient technique reminiscent of the Renaissance tradition, the silverpoint, or more broadly, the metalpoint. Historically, this technique was used for portraits of powerful and official imagery, but Wasserman uses it to craft quasi-private and domestic compositions.

The artist's use of brass and copper wool contributes to the predominantly gray and green palette in many of her paintings. The metalpoint marks have a subtle reflective quality, developing a patina over time. The inherent resistance to erasure in this method helps preserve the uncertainty, obscurity, and subtlety of the subjects. Bodies and their representation in this specific technical realm are handled with care, infused with a certain obsession layered within them, in their existence as objects, shaping our perception.