About
William A. Noguera
B. June 17, 1964
William A. Noguera is an American artist and published author who rose to prominence in the 1990’s, initially with his stark black and white hyper-realistic ink compositions that fused his deep subconscious with the harsh realities of his surroundings. These stunning images speak in a vocabulary that balances imagery with hard-edged geometric forms that conveyed his brutal landscapes.
After forty years of the constant oppressive restraints that come when shackled to a prison cell, Noguera’s response has been to unleash a unique form of abstract paintings, sculptures, and imagery with one goal in mind: The destruction of his surroundings, which he accomplishes using the stone, concrete, and pieces of the prison to create his art, weakening the walls in the process. These profound works turn the destruction into creation, expressing the most basic of human emotions of the sort his predecessors, Mark Rothko, and Robert Motherwell would clearly grace with their approval.
Noguera fuses boundaries of the physical with concepts of space, merging painting, sculpture, and architecture, with the captivating power of destruction, redefining conventional methods of artmaking in a synthesizing contemporary interpretation, balancing destruction and creation that rest on the surface. Exposing the vector that keeps these polarities sliding past one another. Creating a tension felt at first glance. Leaving a long-lasting memory of a site of conflict that can only be achieved by taking an idea to the extreme.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Art is the vehicle by which I share the most personal, and intimate inner workings of my subconscious, and conscious mind for everyone to experience.
Whether I am working with a realistic image, or one that aspires toward abstraction in the purest form. It’s very important that my work remain intrinsically idiomatic to its form of expression.
My paintings are visual poems, informed and Influenced by my resistance to the rigid, and restrictive structure imposed upon me. They are the symptom, the physical manifestation of an actualized mind, redefining conventional concepts of space with the need to free itself of it by any means necessary.
It is in the “Need” that I discovered the solution, and took it to the extreme. By transforming the destruction of the walls that surround me into the creation of my art. Where the anxiety of the “site of conflict” overwhelmingly exists, breathes, and comes to life…
EDUCATION
- Bristol University (f.k.a. Kensington College)
1992 | Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice
AWARDS AND GRANTS
- SF Weekly Best of San Francisco
2007 | Masterminds Gran Competition (visual arts)
GUEST-SPEAKING
- 2018 | La Salle University | legal & ethical environment of business
- 2017 | The Moth Radio Hour | the justice project, community showcase
- 2015 | Endicott College (corporate social responsibility business ethics)
- 2014 | Endicott College (corporate social responsibility business ethics)
BOOKS
- Escape Artist: Memoir Of A Visionary Artist On Death Row (2018) Seven Stories Press, Inc.
- PRISON Culture
(2009) City Lights Foundation
FILM AND VIDEO
- Ghost In The Material
2009 | I.F.C. Center Art House Movie Theatre | New York, NY 2009 | TRUE / FALSE Film Festival | Columbia, MO
2008 | Mendocino Film Festival | Mendocino, CA – Second Release 2007 | Mendocino Film Festival | Mendocino, CA – Debut Release
E X H I B I T I O N S
- 2022 – JUN | "EMPTY SPACES" solo show Elder Gallery Of Contemporary Art, Charlotte NC
- 2018 – MAY | Solo show, Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art, Charlotte, NC
- 2010-JUL | O.I.A. Summer Salon, | New York Law School - New York, NY
- 2008-SEP | Figuratively Speaking | Poiesis Gallery - San Francisco, CA
- 2008-MAY | Drawings | Braunstein/Quay - San Francisco, CA
- 2007-OCT | Visual Voices | ARTworkSF Gallery - San Francisco, CA
- 2007-JUL | The Escape Artist | Yerba Buena Center For Arts - San Francisco, CA
- 2007-MAY | Ghost In The Material | Mendocino Film Festival - Mendocino, CA
- 2007-APR | In Pen & Ink | Space Gallery - San Francisco, CA
- 2006-OCT | United Colors Of Benetton Fabrica | Centre Pompidou - Paris, France
- 2006-OCT | Larkin Street Youth Charity | The Four Galleries - San Francisco, CA
- 2006-MAR | The Escape Artist | Space Gallery - San Francisco, CA
- 2005-MAY | artSFest Arts Expo Gala | SF Design Center Galleria - San Francisco, CA
- 2004-OCT | Redemptive Nature Of Art, | ARTES Vallejo Artists Guild - Vallejo, CA
- 2003-DEC | Boxcar Wilhelmina, | Linc Real Art - San Francisco, CA
- 2002 | William Noguera | La Galerie Internationale - Redwood City, CA
- 1999-MAR | New Visions | La Galerie - Palo Alto, CA
- 1999 – MAR | Art Contemporain | Galerie Everarts – Paris, France
PRESS / MEDIA
- 2022 | Let's Talk Art With Brooke Episode # 220 | Interview With William A. Noguera About His EMPTY SPACES Solo Show At Elder Gallery Of Contemporary Art
- 2019 | Let’s Talk Art with Brooke | the artwork of William A. Noguera
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2018-MAY Making art from San Quentin's Death Row
- 2018-JAN Ben Trefney Cross Currents Interview
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2018-JAN American Booksellers Association: BTW, by Chris Morrow
An Indies Introductory Q&A With William A. Noguera -
2018-JAN ARTnews, by The Editors of ARTnews
Escape Artist, a new book covered by The Guardian
“the artist explains how painting changed his life.” -
2018-JAN BLOUIN ARTINFO INT'L, by BLOUIN ARTINFO
Death Row Seeks Emotional Escape by Creating Art -
2018-JAN The Guardian, by Adam Gabbatt
Escape artist: the life of a painter living on death row From Death row, artist William Noguera -
2018-JAN East Bay Times / Mercury News, by Lou Fancher
Escape Artist: Memoir Of A Visionary Artist -
2016-NOV Artspan blog-FEATURED ART, by Claire, Content Editor
GEOMETRY: Angles • Lines • Corners • Edges
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2015-FEB Arts & Opinion, by William A. Noguera (Lydia Schrüfer)
William A. Noguera: Making His Mark -
2013-FEB Forbes.com, by Walter Pavlo Jr.
The Mastery Of The Escape Artist -
2011-OCT New York Times / Bay Citizen, by Louise Rafkin
Outlaw Art -
2008-JUN Style Century Magazine / Stylewire, by Noah Fleisher
William Noguera: Studio On Death Row - 2008-MAY Juxtapoz Art and Culture Magazine, by Juxtapoz
- 2008-MAR ARTslant San Francisco, by Jolene Torr
- 2007-JUL Film Arts Foundation / True Stories, by Lolong & Kaufman 2007-APR SF Station Flavorpill Magazine, by (LH)
- 2007 May San Francisco Chronicle by Jesse Hamlin, William Noguera Creates ART On Death Row
- 2007 Jan SF Weekly by Ella Lawrence, In Pen And Ink
- 2006-APR Listen & Be Heard / Arts & Culture, by Hadi Reinhertz
- 2004-NOV Listen & Be Heard / Arts & Culture, by Paula McConnell
- 1998 Oct San Francisco Chronicle by Daedalus Hoewell. Inmate Draws Dark Portrait
PODCAST
Ben Trefney of Cross Currents interviews William A. Noguera about his life, his art and his new book Escape Artist.