Nowhere is Indepedent’s adventurous spirit more self-evident than in artist Will Thornton’s presentation in the Ricco Maresca Gallery stand on the fair's first floor.
“Will used to be a hairdresser, completely self-taught”, says gallery co-founder Frank Maresca, a long-time champion of art that challenges orthodoxies. “The first time I looked at his work, it hit me instantly. He’s very much about the past and the classics, and also about the future. He sees them as portraits, and they are—I love them because I’ve been looking at art all of my life, and with Will’s work, I’m completely transported; of the countless paintings I’ve seen in my life, I can’t reference anyone else when I look at his pieces”.
The pieces in question—dark, gnarled depictions of glistening viscera—are rendered from life, thanks to the palm-sized maquettes, reminiscent of old-world worry dolls, that Thornton fashions as the first step in his artistic process. Thornton’s largest oil-on-linen compositions are priced at $6,000.