Travis Willis

Anyone who cannot find an analogous poetry when surveying the parade of a contemporary street is an unfortunate person
- Peter Schjeldahl

Travis Willis (MFA New York Academy of Art 2015; BFA Pacific Northwest College of Art 2013) paints somewhat banal imagery of people walking city streets, or of crowds gathering near tourist attractions.

His paintings never depict any sort of identifiable landmarks for the same reason he paints from blurry photographs: he isn't interested in individual identity or points of destination. His work focuses on natural gestures and the unguarded moments of everyday life. The purpose of blurred images is to suppress the naming of objects and to support the idea of the peripheral - an area lying beyond the strict limits of a thing. His paintings ask the viewer's experience and expectations to finish the illusion which seems to simultaneously appear and disappear.