WILLIAM ENGEL

In 2020, Artist William Engel moved his studio from the Chelsea Art District in NYC to San Diego. He currently shows with R.B. Stevenson Gallery at 7661 Girard in La Jolla, CA. He continues to teach his own course, Advanced Color, with the New York School of Interior Design on Zoom. His latest commission was to complete three large paintings for the modernist lobby of 200 east 57th Street on the Upper east Side in Manhattan.

In December 2016, Skoto Gallery in the Chelsea Art District of NYC was pleased to show his work along with glass sculptor Jeremy Silva.

“William Engel’s work speaks a multilayered language that is at once personal and full of thoughtful inclusion, characterized by carefully organized rhythm of organic forms, mastery of the nuances of color and composition as well as a display of emotional intensity. As an artist who constantly interrogates what he sees, he strives to shape and reshape the basis of his art as well as impress upon us a sense of adventure and discovery. A prolonged viewing of his work is often richly rewarded as even what seems a restful background of his invented landscapes becomes an imaginary charged space of incredible tension in which the planes are subtly but sharply de-centered. His work evokes a poetic intimacy that allows the past to be continually revealed through the present.” —Skoto Agahowa

In 2013, he was commissioned to complete five 5'x7' paintings for the hallways and two paintings for the guest suites of the new William Hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The hotel opened in spring 2014.

“The design of The William Hotel was an intimate collaboration blurring the lines between art, architecture, and interior design. Paintings were commissioned for the corridors on each of five floors in distinct color fields—blue, teal, pink, green and orange. The abstract forms of the paintings were translated into rooms where guests could fully experience color.… Bill’s paintings were created in our studio … so the paint, the palette and the hotel design evolved together as one thing …” —Mason Wickham and Edwin Zawadski, In Situ Design.

New York interior designers and architects, such as In Situ Design, Lilian B. Interiors, Richard Keith Langham, Charles Pavarini III, Robert Kaner Design, and Ageloff Associates have commissioned paintings for their clients’ residences in New York City, the Hamptons and across the country. His work is also in the estate of Whitney Houston.

His paintings have been installed in commercial and hospitality locations, including the corporate lobby of Time Warner on Columbus Circle in New York City, Shering-Plough headquarters in New Jersey, the New York School of Interior Design, and The William Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.

His process for creating the landscapes involves pouring paint onto the canvas and manipulating the canvas back and forth to guide its placement. When the paint is dry—up to two weeks later—he continues, repeating pouring and drying for as many as 10 layers.

“I have been pouring oil and acrylic paint for more than 30 years. Sometimes the pours are about landscapes of my mind and involve a process of up to 20 poured colors at once and built up layer upon layer over three months. Other times, I have been also exploring the idea of more modern works with only one singular pour per session and layered in spatial configurations that conclude in a design of asymmetric balance. The singular pours of buttery oils are also layered over the course of three months for each work. The acrylic pours dry faster and allow the layers to be more transparent. I am inspired by the work of Helen Frankenthaler, Frank Gehry, and Richard Diebenkorn and continue to layer and pour paint using gravity as my brush.” —William Engel.

He is a long-time faculty member of the New York School of Interior Design. As a design educator, he recently developed a new course, Advanced Color, that is implemented within the MFA and BFA programs at the college. His first book, Portfolio Design for Interiors, coauthored with Harold Linton from George Mason University, is scheduled to come out in spring of 2017 with Bloomsbury London.

Showings

Professional Experience 

New York School of Interior Design, 1980–present, Faculty member,  Courses taught include 

Elements of Rendering, Visual Concepts, Mixed Media Rendering, Color, Portfolio Development, Freehand Drawing, Residential Design III

Interior Design Educators Council Conference, “Breaking the Visual Silence: From Gutenberg to Gates,” Clearwater, FL, 1999

CODDI – Council of Interior Designers and Decorators, San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1999. Taught Continuing Education Unit Seminar on Visual Concepts to 315 Designers

Audre Lorde School, Green Chimneys Children’s Services, Inc., 1999–2008, Volunteer Art Teacher 

CUNY, School of Architecture, 1983, Visiting critic

Kean College, Department of Interior Design, 1982, Visiting lecturer

Education   

New York School of Interior Design, NYC, Design Diploma with Distinction, 1979, BFA 2009

Open Atelier of Design and Architecture, NYC, 1977–79

School of Associated Arts, St. Paul, MN, 1975–76

Awards    

Merit Award-Codaworx - Hospitality Category Best Art/Design Colloboration 2014

New York School of Interior Design, Faculty Development Grant, 2008

New York School of Interior Design, Faculty Development Grant, 1998

Top 100 in USA, Mixed Media Category, La Jolla Art Prospect, 1996

William Breger Faculty Achievement Award, New York School of Interior Design, 1996

Top 100 in USA, Mixed Media Category, La Jolla Art Prospect, 1995    

Bronze Medal for Excellence in Design, New York School of Interior Design, 1979