Artist Statement

Themes+Projects proudly presents a transformative fusion of ancient spirituality and contemporary art in a contemplative exhibition where traditional Tibetan thangkas inspire a rich visual experience of light, color, and abstraction.  

Bill Kane reimagines the devotional scroll paintings known as thangkas — intricate Buddhist images traditionally used for meditation — by distilling their essence into monumental color field forms. Through a process of scanning, blurring, color enhancement and enlargement - to nearly seven feet tall - his large scale dual image lenticular works glow with a light that seems to emanate from within. These luminous panels produce vibrant fields of painterly color with subtle tonal shifts that change as one varies their angle of viewing evoking an otherworldly energy.
           
Recalling the radiant splendor of historic, and contemporary, chapels such as Paris’s Sainte-Chapelle, Matisse’s Chapelle du Rosire and Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin, Kane creates his own chapel in works that transcend religious boundaries. Regardless of personal beliefs each piece offers a totemic presence where color and light converge to reveal an inner spiritual dimension inviting visitors to pause and find moments of quiet reflection.  

Artist Bio

Bill Kane is an internationally active artist whose photographs and mixed media works have been extensively exhibited across the US, Europe, and Asia since 1980. He has held over 20 solo exhibitions and participated in more than 60 group shows. His work is included in prestigious collections such as the Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; de Young Museum, San Francisco; Carnegie Mellon Institute, Pittsburgh; Oakland Museum, Oakland; Stanford University; Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento; Museum of Neon Art, Los Angeles; the Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Loretto, PA; Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, MA; and corporate collections including NW Ayer Advertising, New York, Southland Corporation, Dallas, TX, Arthur Andersen, Chicago, IL, Atomic AI, South San Francisco, CA, SK Hynix, San Jose, CA, BioMed, Cambridge, MA among others

His work has also been featured in a number of movies, including Robocop by Paul Verhoeven, The Namesake by Mira Nair, Definitely Maybe by Adam Brooks and Just Wright by Sanaa Hamri.

Bill was awarded the National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship twice, in 1980 for Photography and again in 1991 for Painting. Further he was awarded grants from the Eyes and Ears Foundation twice, in 1979 and again in 1984. He is included in the Who's Who of American Art.