William LaChance - Biography

William LaChance's paintings are misplaced associations of shapes and colors drawn from graphic design, fashion, art history and nature itself, assembled using a variety of methods and of materials ranging from painting and engraving to assembly and sewing.

The paintings themselves present shifting hierarchies of similar concerns: material exploration, abstract identity, formal space, and narrative expression. They openly blur the line between high art and applied art, not only in principle but also in practice, lending themselves to various forms of surface design, from textiles and marking to fully realized earthworks.

LaChance's figurative paintings invite us to contemplate them. To explore the enveloping space behind and around one or two isolated figures. We can look beyond what is depicted and create our own stories.

Abstract paintings invert things, so that everything happens on the surface. The stories are still there - they just weave their way through abstract shapes to a place right in front of us.

LaChance's recent mural, which adorns the basketball courts in Kinloch Park, has been named by Architectural Digest as the best-designed basketball court in the world.

Kinloch Park Basketball Courts, St. Louis, Missouri