BILL TRAVIS: BIOGRAPHY

Bill Travis (born Colorado, 1957) is an emerging painter/photographer living in New York City. He originally trained in art history, earning his Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts and subsequently teaching at the University of Michigan. He has published articles on medieval art and symbolism in prominent scholarly journals and this strong art-historical background has helped give his work an unusual appearance, looking back to great works of the past and forward to contemporary concerns with sexuality and visual ambiguity.
Since moving to New York in 2001, he has devoted himself entirely to fine art photography. His principal subject is the sensual male nude, which he has explored in several series. “Desire,” for instance, takes its cue from the Latin etymology of the word “desidero,” meaning to long for the stars, and from that concept the artist builds up a sequence of images that equate the body with the evening sky—forever beckoning but lying just beyond grasp. “Dreams,” another series, depicts men in the languorous poses of sleep, while vague mental images from the unconscious appear in the background. “Shadows” deals with the male body as an abstract landscape, cast in a darkness which makes it all the harder to decipher; the background no longer functions as space, but as a type of emotional commentary on the representation.
The artist has developed various techniques to express these aims. Sometimes he transfers images onto a gilt board, allowing the gold to shine through to the surface. In other works, he combines oil paint, pastel, and mixed media with his photography. The purpose is not to innovate for the sake of innovating, but to enhance the images’ sensuality, affecting a rare union between the specificity of photography and the richness of painting.
Travis has had numerous group and solo shows in New York City and around the United States. His work was featured in a museum exhibit in Argentina and later this year he will have a one-man show in Paris.