Cris Worley is proud to present her sixth solo exhibition with William Cannings, opening with an artist’s reception on Saturday, October 14, from 5 to 8 p.m. Vetted will include small-scale, steel sculpture. The exhibition will be on view through November 11.

William Cannings spent time in his youth working in automotive shops where he familiarized himself with the tools and equipment needed to support his practice and satisfy his hands-on approach to art making. Today, the artist has mastered an innovative process of working with flat steel and automotive paint. Each finished sculpture looks buoyant despite its heavy material, creating a dichotomy of hard and soft, weightless and hefty. Cannings creates seductive forms and visual trickery that entice, provoke, and demand to be touched.

The work in Vetted takes on a more personal narrative than seen in the recent past. Though he has lived in the United States for 17 years, Cannings just gained final US Citizenship, and while it was not necessarily a conscious decision to focus on this event, many unconscious choices appear in the work, including the exploration of certain literal objects: a boat, popsicle and pistol. Likewise, the choice of certain color schemes and abstract forms harken back to the popular culture of the 1970’s, when the artist was a young child.