Brian Wills
Making Color Move
A candid studio portrait of Brian Wills surrounded by wooden panels, colorful thread, and works in progress, capturing the artist’s meticulous approach to color, light, and geometric abstraction.
Introduction
Brian Wills’s paintings and wall-based artworks explore how color, light, and material shape the way we see and experience the world. Born in Lexington, Kentucky, in 1970 and now based in Los Angeles, Wills draws inspiration from minimalist art, geometric patterns, and the subtle shifts in color found in everyday surroundings. His early influences include the understated architecture of Kentucky’s Quaker villages and the quiltmaking of his grandmother, whose sense of color helped shape his visual sensibility. After studying at Denison University and Harvard, Wills pursued his artistic practice in Los Angeles, developing a distinctive approach that combines painting with carefully arranged strands of thread. Through precise compositions and seemingly simple forms, he creates works that transform as viewers move around them, revealing unexpected colors, textures, and depths.
“I want to use color to literally make you stop to think.”
Studio & Process
In his Los Angeles studio, Wills works with wooden panels, paint, and thousands of individual strands of thread to create meticulously constructed surfaces. He often wraps single strands of rayon or synthetic thread around painted wooden supports, arranging them in carefully calibrated patterns and color sequences. Depending on the density of the threads, the surrounding light, and the viewer’s position, the surfaces can appear to shift between flat fields of color and dimensional structures. In some works, thread seems to hover above the panel; in others, it becomes embedded within painted or coated surfaces, creating a different relationship between line, texture, and depth.
This labor-intensive process draws together the precision of geometric abstraction and the sensory possibilities of material experimentation. By introducing subtle variations and interruptions into repeated patterns, Wills encourages viewers to question what they initially perceive and to look more closely at how an artwork is constructed.
“Abstract work should have a bit of a heartbeat,” Wills has said, describing how materials can contribute their own expressive presence.
What’s Next?
Wills continues to expand his exploration of color, material, and perception through new combinations of paint, wood, and thread. His work has been exhibited at galleries and institutions including OCHI Projects, Quint Gallery, TOTAH, the Underground Museum, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. His pieces also belong to public and private collections, including the Palm Springs Art Museum and Fundación/Colección Jumex in Mexico City.
As his practice evolves, Wills continues to investigate how repetition, subtle variation, and changes in viewing position can create dynamic experiences from carefully ordered materials. His work demonstrates that abstraction need not be distant or impersonal; through color and texture, it can become an invitation to slow down, observe, and experience the unexpected.
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