Downtown, Los Angeles
William Crawford
More Worried Than A Worm In A Bird's Nest
FaragoWilliam Crawford’s drawings were found in an abandoned house in Oakland, CA. Several of them were made on the backs of prison roster sheets dated 1997. Nothing is known about the artist except for his occasional signature as Bill, William or WM Crawford. In graphite on paper, the drawings depict drug use and orgies often including a recurring male figure which suggests the artist’s self-portrait. Their drawings recall the comic tumescence in the work of Tom of Finland and the weightlessness of William Blake. Crawford’s collected drawings, of which there are hundreds, appear to have comprised several narratives consisting of images in sequences of 30 or more. These sequences, presumably broken up since their original compilation, are now fragmentary. The exhibition is the first presentation of William Crawford’s work in Los Angeles. Crawford's drawings have been exhibited at Galerie Susanne Zander (Cologne and Berlin) and Zieher Smith and Horton (New York). The work was included in "System and Vision”, a group exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery in spring 2015.