Bill Saylor

Bill Saylor was born in 1960 in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. Using spray paint, charcoal, photographic collage, and oil paint on canvas and industrial tarps, Saylor splatters and scrawls a cast of recurring characters and motifs exploring the significance of underground subcultures and the environment. Drawing and assemblage serve as crucial and enduring facets of Saylor’s practice, taking the form of graphite and charcoal on paper and panel, sculptures made from salvaged materials and automotive parts, and collaborative Xerox zines. Saylor's work recycles and reframes elements from graffiti, cave painting, and industrial production while mining the legacy of both American and European expressionism. The resulting effect amounts to an eco-scavenger sensibility, where images and surfaces are built up from the excess waste and detritus of our culture. Saylor’s post-apocalyptic beachcomber aesthetic reminds one of a world where humanity exists amid a fragile tension of creation and destruction and that our human-built culture is but one element of a much larger and complex ecosystem.