(New York) – Affirmation Arts, a multi-disciplinary contemporary art space in Hudson Yards, is pleased to present Intimate Arrangements, a show of new large-scale photographs exploring the geometric potential of the human body by artist William T. Hillman (American, b. 1954), running from March 31 – May 7, 2023. The exhibition marks the final in its current location before transferring to a new 5,000 sq ft space in the Meatpacking District on 13th Street, opening in late 2023.
Intimate Arrangements features six black-and-white photographs portraying male and female nudes. Challenging the concept of the nude as eroticism, the works instead explore the intimacy and classical beauty inherent within naked portraiture.
The works are a development of Hillman’s 2018 series Emily Abstracted, which turned the movements of a dancer into photographic, painterly forms; in Intimate Arrangements, Hillman works with a larger group of dancers, using just the human body to create abstract forms.
Hillman comments:
To mark the end of Affirmation Arts’ tenure in our current Hudson Yards location, I wanted to share some works which engage with the human form in its most fundamental aspect. Classical figure study has been primary to my practice. Intimate Arrangements is an entry point into ongoing arts programming for our future, incorporating choreography and classical models of figure study, realized through modern photographic techniques. We appreciate the past while we look towards an exciting new space in the Meatpacking district.
Founded in their current Hudson Yard space in 2008, the gallery’s move allows them to focus on expanding programming while retaining a dedication to fine photography at its core. Its location continues to offer exhibition space, a study/library and conference center for non-profit arts organizations, and ongoing programming to champion the role art and artists play in contemporary culture.
William T. Hillman is a photographer and painter based in New York. Throughout his career, he has worked across drawing and painting, embracing digital and analog photographic images. With a background in capturing both the landscape and the human form, his work often exists between the figurative and the abstract. Hillman’s work is represented in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, as well as many private collections.
The exhibition will be on view M-F, 10 am-5 pm, and by appointment.
Affirmation Arts
523 W 37th St, New York, NY 10018, United States