William Mackrell combines mediums to create works of art that are, as he states, “loosely pinned together by performance, beginning from the body, and specifically, how we document ourselves with a camera.” In 2014, Mackrell embarked on a series of photo-based works, called “Human Condition,” in which he plays with our perspective of the physical form. Images, such as Gulp, draw the viewer’s attention to unusual vantage points—in this case, a man’s chin and throat as seen from below. He then introduced his own body via the extension of his hand, cutting into the surface of the photograph with a needle to create a web of obsessive, undulating forms that evokes a wiry beard. Mackrell’s images are intimate studies of both the subject and the meditative, time-consuming, and repetitive actions of the artistic process.

Label from Drawing: The Beginning of Everything, July 8–October 15, 2017