Marais, Paris
Will Sheldon
L'Estropié — Chapter 2
AtrataAtrata is pleased to present L'Estropié, the second chapter of a two-part exhibition by American artist Will Sheldon. The show features new paintings conceived during his summer residency at Villa Atrata, and serves as a continuation of The Sleepy Château and the Wounded Soldier in the Summertime, the first chapter, currently on view at Villa Atrata Angles-sur-l'Anglin. The title L'Estropié is a darkly humorous reference to Will Sheldon's own convalescence during his residency. While recovering from a knee injury, he was inspired by Edgar Allan Poe’s The Oval Portrait (1842) and Honoré de Balzac’s The Unknown Masterpiece (1831). The exhibition draws parallels between the narratives of these two classic short stories and the artist’s own experience of physical limitation. It explores themes of passivity, artistic obsession, sacrifice, and the pursuit of perfection at the expense of life itself. Will Sheldon (b. 1990, Hong Kong) is an American artist who lives and works in New York. Working across painting and drawing, Sheldon is deeply influenced by subculture and fantasy aesthetics. His rich, phantasmagorical world features mysterious characters, dolls, stormy seas, monochrome figures, empty interiors and imaginary landscapes, often rendered through a disorientating, undulating, and unsettling fever-dream-like vision. Selected exhibitions : Season of Miracles, Heidi, Berlin, 2024; Thirst of Silence, Clearing, Los Angeles, 2024; Will Sheldon: Drawings, American Art Catalogue, New York, 2023; Raffaella, Company Gallery, New York, 2023; Luxury Loneliness, Weiss Falk Galerie, Basel, 2022; A Maze Zanine, Amaze Zaning, A-Mezzaning, Meza-9, David Zwirner, New York, 2022; Mystic May, The Community, Paris, 2021; Trouble after Dark, Team Gallery, New York, 2020; Crocodile Tears, curated by Cassidy Toner, SALTS, Basel, 2019; The Untamed, curated by Taylor Trabulus, Karma International, Zurich, 2019; My Deep Secret, Arcadia Missa, London, 2018; To Let Things Slide, curated by Alana Alireza and Kristina Lovaas, Lovaas Projects, Munich, 2017; Teenscape, Schloss, Oslo, 2017; Prick Up Your Ears, curated by Taylor Trabulus, Karma International, Los Angeles, 2017.