A Painting Survey, Six Decades: Thornton Willis

Abstract painter Thornton Willis moved to New York City in 1967 and taught at Wagner College in Staten Island. He primarily studied with Mel Price, and was heavily influenced by American Expressionism. Willis’ work has been widely exhibited, and he is the recipient of many awards and recognitions, including a Painting Fellowship from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2001), a Printmaking Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts (1984), and the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship in Painting (1978). He has been represented by the Elizabeth Harris Gallery (New York) since 2001.

Artist, writer, and independent curator Tom McGlynn is based in the NYC area. His work is represented in the permanent collections of the Whitney Museum, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum of the Smithsonian. He is the director of Beautiful Fields, an organization dedicated to socially-engaged curatorial projects, and is also currently a visiting lecturer at Parsons School of Design, The New School. McGlynn’s work is interested in the morphing of commercial signage into cyphers of phenomenal experience—minimalist, abstract arrangements of color. He holds an MFA from Hunter College and a BFA from the Ramapo College of New Jersey. Tom is an Editor-at-Large for the Brooklyn Rail.