“Portraits” is an intriguing collection of multimedia works by American-Brazilian artist Tyler Willis in a San Francisco penthouse gallery.
The exhibition of some 35 pieces on view through Feb. 28 at Gallery 181 atop 181 Fremont Residences showcases Willis’ striking portraits that mix photorealism, technical sketching and abstract expressionism. The pieces are created with various media including 3D printing, epoxy resin, graphite, charcoal and paint.
“Fire Dancer,” inspired by his wife Thaissa Nascimento, is a square 40-inch digital print and acrylic painting. The dancer stands motionless as her dress swirls. It’s as if she has just completed a performance and is waiting for applause.
“When my wife had long hair, she wore it in a bun, giving me the idea of her as a dancer. I tried not to get too realistic, to make it expressive. I thought of someone dancing in the street of a city. Dimly lit, wet concrete,” Willis says.
Willis’ personal and occupational pursuits always have involved tinkering, fiddling, dismantling, building, making errors and refusing to give up until the object of his fascination is perfected.
Artistry is in his DNA. Willis, 32, was raised in a home where “art was everywhere.” He says his mother, who commissioned paintings, was a phenomenal cook whose food was delicious and presented creatively: “I remember a flower garnish made out of a tomato skin. And she always dressed impeccably, stylishly.”
A Bay Area artist who grew up in San Anselmo, Willis spent summers as a youth visiting his family in Brazil, his mother’s native country. In high school, he dreamed of making an Iron Man suit before attending Lehigh University in Pennsylvania to study mechanical engineering. As an intern, he worked in architecture and structural engineering. Later, he worked in commercial real estate for nine years before becoming a full-time artist.
A maker kid as likely to take a toy apart as he was to play with it, Willis’ early drawings were of dragons and dinosaurs. He adds, “I drew fantasy, but also everything I saw. I’d do a still life or draw a bird and try to replicate whatever it was as accurately as I could.”
A high school art teacher recognized his draftsmanship but questioned why Willis emphasized hyper-realistic rendering when modern cameras would “out-perfect” him. Willis bit into the challenge—to do something a camera cannot—and entered the realm of experimentation.
He says, “It was a lot of making errors. I tried out tools like 3D printers, an iPad, lasers; played with materials like ceramics, oil and acrylic paints, and learned software like Photoshop, Illustrator. I’d get a 3D printer and my friends would say ‘There goes Ty’ because I’d be playing for hours.”
Limited by tiny apartments and concerns about roommates, Willis at first created small-scale works. But things changed after he moved to a light-filled, 1,800-square-foot studio with high ceilings.
Today, he still begins small. He sketches, figures out color schemes and the composition for each piece on an iPad before expanding to works that might measure 66 inches by 48 inches unframed. Even with an image roughed out on canvas, Willis often snaps a photo, downloads it to his iPad and tinkers digitally before returning to the easel.
“With painting, my default is realism and planning. You can wipe off oil paints, but acrylic dries very quickly. I like to be in control and iPad gives me that, which I guess speaks to that longtime perfectionism,” he says.
“Portraits” at Gallery 181 also includes “Untitled #1.1,” an abstract work. His original plan was to paint hundreds of multicolored Lego bricks. He programmed digital simulation software to suspend and then drop them on a surface below. Then, attempting to transfer the image onto canvas by hand, he realized the enormity of the task and stopped. He says, “I dumped paint all over it and it splattered in a way I thought I could work with. I started layering stuff onto it. It felt organic and I was happy with it in the end.”
Another piece, “Self Portrait,” represents a critical work in his artistic journey. Wills says, “People ask about the tattoos on my face and words like ‘Ty was here’ and my signature in quotes. Some people might say it’s graffiti defacing a nice surface, but in my head that doesn’t matter. What matters is how my art makes you feel.”
“Portraits” by Tyler Willis continues through Feb. 28, 2025 at Gallery 181, 181 Fremont St. To arrange to view the art by private appointment, visit 181Fremont.com.
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