Bill Claps

Bill Claps is a visual artist, photographer and filmmaker based in New York City. He is known for work that illustrates the universal roots and common elements that are shared by all cultures, often referencing art history and language. His inspiration comes from sources as varied as digital code, Asian landscape painting, expressionism, and appropriated images from contemporary art.

The artist’s “Natural Abstractions” series emerged from his desire to capture the ephemeral quality of light in the natural world. As he explains, “Through my artworks and photographs I try to capture the effects of light that is constantly changing throughout the day, continually impacting our perception of objects in nature." This fluidity is central to the series, where each work evolves in response to changing light conditions. The series also draws inspiration from traditional Chinese and Japanese landscape painting, which emphasizes the impermanence of the natural world and its constant transformation.

Claps achieves this effect through his unique signature mixed media technique that combines photography, painting, gilding, and digital technologies, allowing his works to reveal new textures and nuances that transform in response to the surrounding environment. He starts with source photos taken from the natural world (including China, Japan, the Cuban rainforest, and the mountains of Europe, Asia and the US), which he finishes by painting onto the surface of the work and then applying a unique signature gold foil process, refined over more than 15 years.

Bill studied painting and art history at Harvard University, the Art Students League in New York and in Florence, Italy, and studied filmmaking at New York University. His works are held in private and public collections internationally and regularly exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including Today Art Museum, Beijing, MOMA Tbilisi, Tbilisi, Georgia, Frisk Art Museum, Nashville, TN, Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna, Rome, American University Museum, Washington, DC, Museo Camuno di Breno, Breno, Italy, la Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica di Palazzo Corsini in Rome, Palazzo Simone Fe, Bienno, Italy, and LAHAF Art Foundation, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.