William Betts

View From the Panopticon
April 13 – May 25

Two large black and white photographs displayed on a gallery wall, featuring groups of people and text, with a modern blue bench on the right side.

Two large monochrome paintings on a gallery wall, depicting blurry, crowd-like figures. The word "ONLY" is prominently featured on one. A blue bench is positioned to the right.

A black and white CCTV footage image, displayed as an art canvas on a wall, showing two people walking side by side in a nondescript area, with a timestamp at the top.

A modern art gallery with a large pixelated black and white image of a woman walking, titled "View from the Pantheon" by William Betts, displayed on a white wall.

A monochrome image of a CCTV feed, displayed on a canvas in a gallery, showing a blurred view of people walking on a curved pathway with timestamp "2/16/08 01:17:27" in the corner.

Interior of an art gallery with white walls and gray carpet; two large monochrome photographs hang on the left wall, with a corridor visible in the background.

Art installation in a gallery featuring two large multimedia artworks on the walls, each depicting grainy, black-and-white video footage. The setting is minimal with soft lighting and carpeted floors.

Black and white security camera photo displayed on a monitor, showing a solitary truck in a dimly lit parking area with timestamp overlay.

Press Release

The Richard Levy Gallery is pleased to present recent work by William Betts from his surveillance series. He presents viewers with the contradiction of watching and yet being watched. Betts distills one image from a stream of video footage and reduces it to a range of abstract colored dots, using an advanced linear motion technology and proprietary software system of his own design.

Inspired by the writings of Jeremy Bentham on the Panopticon and Michel Foucault in his work Discipline and Punish, Betts explores the sociological and philosophical implications of surveillance in contemporary post 9-11 society. He creates ambiguous scenes that, up close, resemble color fields redolent of pointillism and from a distance, resemble generic crime scenes. Betts alludes to the ambiguity of crime through heightened perspective, vague environments and anonymous figures to draw the viewer into murky territory. Who is watching whom here, remains a question in viewers’ minds.

William Betts, born and raised in New York City, currently lives and works in Houston, TX. He was educated at Arizona State University, where he received his Bachelor’s degree in studio arts cum laude.

Dates: April 13–May 25, 2007
Reception: May 4, 6–8 pm
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday, 11 am–4 pm
Location: 514 Central Avenue SW, Albuquerque, NM 87102
Contact: 505.766.9888, info@levygallery.com, www.levygallery.com @levygallery