Cris Worley Fine Arts is pleased to announce, Fragments, a solo exhibition of new works by gallery artist William Cannings. This is Cannings’s eighth solo exhibition with Cris Worley.
William Cannings spent time in his youth working in automotive shops where he familiarized himself with the tools and equipment needed to support his current-day art practice and satisfy his hands-on approach to making. Today, the artist has mastered an innovative process of working with three of the four classical elements of nature: steel, heat and air. Each finished sculpture appears buoyant despite its heavy material, creating a dichotomy of hard and soft, weightlessness and heft.
Fragments refers to the scraps and “castaway” pieces of steel that are not the original intention of the making process. Over the years, Cannings has seen these leftover shapes, with their signature tears, twists, and folds, as work in themselves. “Chance” acts a co-partner, opening up the possibility that the creative path forward is not always the one first taken.
William Cannings (b. 1970) is originally from Manchester, England and currently lives and works in Lubbock, TX with his wife, Shannon Cannings, also a fine artist. He received a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA from Syracuse University. He is Professor of Sculpture at Texas Tech University. Cannings exhibits frequently across the United States including in New York, Miami, New Mexico, and Texas.
Recent public works include a large-scale permanent installation with the City of Houston at Gate 51 at Hobby Airport, and a monumental outdoor sculpture at the Hall Sculpture Walk, Hall Arts Hotel in downtown Dallas. His works are also seen publicly in the permanent collection of the William P. Clements, Jr. Hospital at UTSW Medical Center in Dallas, TX and the HOLT CAT Headquarters in San Antonio, TX. He was one of four artists chosen for a solo exhibition at the 2009 Texas Biennial that was reviewed with critical acclaim in Art in America. Likewise, he is highlighted in the canonical publication, Texas Artists Today, written by Catherine Anspon.