Rynham Art

William first exhibited his work publicly on the streets of Los Angeles. As he progressed into fine art exhibition, William always wanted to keep true to this initial form of expression. His first gallery exhibitions incorporated found objects with imagery rooted in street art. William has evolved into fine art but he maintains a connection to his early works. Street art forced William to create in a single expressive moment. He continues this practice in his current studio work, making large scale pieces in one session. While many artists create a piece over days or months, William does not revisit any of his pieces once the initial emotion has passed, ensuring it captures the energy of that single expressive moment. He works across multiple mediums with a consistent tone and voice echoing his early artistic roots.

On the Road is an exhibition of new work by Dallas-based artist, William Atkinson. The exhibition will debut new large-scale mixed media paintings combining formal and conceptual qualities from Abstract Expressionism, photo collage, and Western literature. Reappropriating found photography documenting a midcentury family’s road trip from Texas to Colorado, Atkinson honors and disrupts tenets American culture with bold mark-making and expressive gesture.

Transitioning from his subterranean career as a street artist in Los Angeles, Atkinson retained many of his artistic processes—on canvas he works with expediency, often completing a piece in as little as one or two sessions, imbuing his work with a visceral physicality and emotive power. In work like Texas Series #1, swaths of raw canvas background seemingly haphazard brush strokes—a collaged photograph of shadowy trees drives mystery into the work’s illusive narrative. Drawing inspiration from Abstract Expressionist painters like Franz Kline and Beat poetry—the exhibition’s title, On the Road, referencing Jack Kerouac’s jazzy opus—his techniques privilege painterly force. Atkinson’s artistic practice pushes the limits of his body and tools towards their breaking points.

A Texas native himself, Atkinson juxtaposes the imagery of the anonymous family’s road trip, familiar to the artist’s lived experience, with the visual language of abstraction. Together, these antithetical subjects and aesthetics offset the binary of high and low culture to interesting effect. While movements like Abstract Expressionism and conceptualism are often associated with coastal cultural capitals—particularly New York and Los Angeles—Atkinson reconsiders the influence of the American South in 20th century art history. Thus, On the Road taps into the American cultural consciousness, its spontaneity, grandeur, and often overlooked everyday nuances.

Public installations of artwork in discussion with the city of Dallas.

Mixed media on hardboard.

Individual pieces made in conjunction with paintings. Completing the creative process while the paint dries.

Mixed media on hardboard.

Study of the ever changing urban landscape. Building no longer in existence.

Black and white polaroids.

Re-contextualization of imagery in consideration of contrivances vs. realities.

Mixed media on hardboard.

Study of the ever changing urban landscape. Building no longer in existence.

Color polaroids.

Adaption to Decay at Valley View Mall.

Black and White Polaroid.

Adaption to Decay at Valley View Mall.

Color Polaroid.

In the Middle of Things

9 pieces created in a single session

Mixed Media on Paper, 2015