William Schwedler (1942-1982) defied categorization throughout his life and a career cut short in the first wave of the AIDS epidemic. Educated alongside those who would become known as the Chicago Imagists, those who critiqued commerciality and culture via chaotic, graphic compositions, Schwedler opted for a serene, industrial visual language that could be attributed to his upbringing in Chicago, a city of railways, industry, and manufacturing.

Noticeably void of the direct references to or depictions of the body politic common to the work of his Chicago peers, the New York Pop Art scene, or even his queer contemporaries, Schwedler’s work operated on a subconscious level. Without making bold statements or proclamations, his invented architectures subtly but profoundly affected the viewer’s physical and mental state by altering positionality, sense of scale, distance, and depth. His vertigo-inducing compositions reflect an inner psychological landscape, untethered from the comforts of convention and the familiar, a liminal space and state of being.