It might be easy to dismiss this work as simply presenting multiple diminutive urban snapshots. But take another look because there is a great deal more going on here.  It begins with how each image is rendered in smoky warm blacks, whites but mostly grays.  Each of these little paintings is seductive for how they recall the Ashcan school from over 70 years ago - sans the color.  But while William Carroll channels the style and sensibility of that period he also brings in a conceptual angle.

In a conversation with the artist he described the work as an accumulation of quick-sketch impressions meant to convey a sense of movement through a particular place - New York City.  Carroll loves to walk in New York which is very conducive to that activity.  But his walks last hours as in a stroll he took from Coney Island to his home in Manhattan. From this aconcept immerged which combined quick

William Carroll, Building 2, 2007, acrylic paint, paper and glue, 96 X 63 in

impressions of the city while progressively moving through it.  The images play out like a reel of film but with several frames missing in between.  Carroll initially tried to work from

William Carroll, NYC 64, 2006, acrylic on paper, 4 3/4 X 6 1/8 in

photographs but eventually found his way to 1 or 2 minute sketches that are converted into these intimate paintings.  As a result they become all the more subjective and intimate for having been derived from memory.

Two large paper installations are included which approach the subject matter from the same curious intimate / impersonal perspective the small paintings do.  After spending some time with this show the cumulative effect pulls you into the artist’s personal take of moving through the city.  At the same time this body of work serves up a hyper-realistic representation of the city in all its murky and contradictory remote intimacy.

William Carroll, NYC 34, 2006, acrylic on paper, 5 X 7 3/8 in