Nancy Margolis Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Willem Andersson’s inaugural exhibition “Is the house still on fire” on October 18 and continuing through November 24, 2012. The artist’s reception will take place Thursday, October 18, 6-8pm.

Andersson works with graphite and paint on canvas, paper and wood. With a distinct style and expression, his paintings and drawings are an unusual narrative poetically depicting the social structures we follow in the home, workplace, and everyday life. Meticulously detailed, his work draws the viewer into a surreal world of haunting images: a uniformed man with a bandaged face, billowing smoke from burning buildings, odd bulbous formations, people half submerged in water. In the painting “Onlookers,” which inspired the title of the exhibition, Andersson paints on wood panel with exposed grain, a grim scene of a burning house as a motionless crowd observes. It is almost as if we are in the back of the group mesmerized, watching the rhythmically drawn curlicues of smoke waft out the windows as this shocking scene unfolds. The interaction between Andersson’s solemn characters and his dark and unsettling scenes, poignantly reference his critical view of society. Deftly composed, in his own inimitable style, Andersson’s compelling narrative and challenging ambiguities leaves the viewer on his or her own to unravel and interpret the story.

Andersson graduated Stockholms Universitet, Sweden and also attended Idun Loven School of Arts, Forsberg School of Graphics, and Parsons Paris School of Design. He has exhibited in many cities throughout the world including Stockholm, Rome, Copenhagen, Turin. Nancy Margolis Gallery is happy to be exhibiting his first solo show in the United States.