Billis Williams Gallery is pleased to present RAYMOND LOGAN: EVERYDAY ICONS II, the gallery’s fourth solo exhibition by the Los Angeles-based painter. The exhibition features the artist's recent object paintings and continues through May 3rd. Raymond Logan is a representational artist whose work is truly about the intersection of realism and abstraction. Deeply grounded in highly skilled draftsmanship, Logan’s paintings are created through the liberal application of oil paint via a brush or palette knife plus extensive color experimentation. Logan shuns both the realism and abstraction labels - he views his work as an abstract representation of himself - it represents his process of imagining. His color theory and generous application of his medium is strikingly distinctive. While his expression of imagining is delivered via his technique, the selection of his subject matter is also vital to his being able to reveal his creativity. His criteria for subject matter is straightforward: the subject must challenge him to express himself and grow as an artist. It also provides an entry point for the viewer; allowing for access to Logan as an artist and what he is trying to achieve. Even if the viewer does not understand how he executed the piece, it speaks to them on some personal level and the subject matter often helps find the common ground between artist and viewer. Human beings are connected via people, places, and things. Sometimes those connections are based on memories, sometimes they are immediate. Either way, ethereal or evident, they are shared. Logan considers his art to be a dialogue between himself and the viewer about those shared connections. Raymond Logan received his BFA from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California in 1988. He has been exhibiting widely on the West Coast with work featured in galleries and at the Pasadena Museum of History as well as art fairs in Seattle, San Francisco, and multiple locations in Southern California. His work is featured in numerous private collections throughout the United States. Logan lives and works in Glendale, California. - Billis Williams Gallery is pleased to present MICAH CRANDALL-BEAR: RECENT PAINTINGS, the gallery’s second solo exhibition by the Northern California-based painter. The exhibition features the artist's recent landscape inspired abstractions and continues through May 3rd. Micah Crandall-Bear's abstract landscape paintings examine the enigmatic dance between light and shadow in the natural world. Linear layers cascade from atmospheric to subterranean, mirroring the complexities of human experience. Panoramic details hint at daily and seasonal shifts in light, evoking a sense of evolution and balance. The paintings are nuanced and compelling - Crandall-Bear builds layer upon layer of texture and color with a balance and refinement that is meditative and transfixing. While referencing a horizon line, sunset sky, or landscape/seascape, the paintings shine in their abstraction and ‘more-than’ color palette. While rooted in the natural world, Crandall-Bear is pushing the saturation and range of colors he can coax from his palette while still creating compositions that read as landscapes. The subtle tonal changes and mark-making unify these linear compositions. Intriguing from far away and intense upon close inspection, the paintings seem to glow with an internal light. Through the interplay of vibrant hues and muted tones, Crandall-Bear’s canvases are often an introspective reminder of the delicate balance between melancholy and joy. MICAH CRANDALL-BEAR (b. 1980) is represented by galleries in the United States, Asia, and Europe and his work is in permanent collections including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Resnick Foundation, and the Crocker Art Museum, and as well as numerous private collections around the world. He recently completed a large-scale painting at Google's Googleplex headquarters in Mountain View, CA as well as a large mural at Warner Media in Culver City, CA. Crandall-Bear lives and works in Sacramento, California.