A light here required a shadow there

5 Sep-2 Oct 2025

PV 11 Sep 2025, 6-8pm

Overview

Maximillian William is pleased to announce A light here required a shadow there, a group exhibition featuring the work of Grant Falardeau, Rimante Mikulovičiūtė, Benjamin Sasserson, Bu Shi and Dylan Williams. The title of the exhibition, adapted from Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse, expresses a perennial dialogue between intimacy and distance, revelation and concealment. The exhibition evokes a range of contrasts, exploring what might be revealed by the faintest light – or concealed by its absence.

Grant Falardeau’s Pan and Lindsey #1 (both 2025) embody qualities of dark and light respectively. As the god of fields and forests, and a menace to shepherds, Pan is the embodiment of mischief and unbridled lust, his presence provoking panic, the word derived from his name. While the light-absorbing surfaces of Pan hint at dark energies, Lindsey #1 is bathed in gold, glowing as if blessed with an inner light. 

Benjamin Sasserson’s White Nights (2025) depicts a man holding a veil over a woman’s face in a dark, domestic setting. While the painting might depict a couple playing a game, the image also alludes to Saint Veronica’s veil, highlighting the power of mimetic art. In Death of spring (Foraarets død) (2025) a dog rests in a garden, possibly injured, barely visible amid flowers and darkness.

The domestic interiors of Rimante Mikulovičiūtė’s paintings are partly based on her memories of a family farm in rural Lithuania. The Dining Room and Three Plums (both 2025) depict scenes of domesticity and humility, revelling in subtle glimmers of light and patches of shadow. During the Soviet era, the dining room table offered one of the few places of open and honest conversation. Mikulovičiūtė mixes nostalgia with a note of warning about the civic value of intimacy in an era of social media and oversharing. 

A sense of wistfulness animates Moonlight makes me transparent (2023) by Dylan Williams. The painting might bring to mind a moody sky by Turner, offering a similarly Romantic sense of flux and elusiveness. Transported into the wispy light of clouds, the viewer is offered a vision of sublimity captured in a tiny night sky.

Influenced by both European and Chinese traditions, Bu Shi’s paintings offer intense meditative experiences. In Samghata Hell at Sunset (2025) a skull rests in a central position, with a gate or portal behind it, all framed by the sinuous branches of two pine trees. Samghata is a region of hell in Buddhism, and here Bu Shi depicts the space awash with deep red light, while the walls and portals in the painting hint at things hidden from view. Alter of the ancestors (2025) is a small still life replete with red coral, a chrysanthemum, crystals and a skull. Despite its diminutive scale, the painting becomes a richly detailed landscape in which the viewer might get lost for hours.

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Grant Falardeau (b. 1984, Los Angeles) lives and works in Los Angeles. He received a BFA from Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. Solo exhibitions include Celosia, nervi delle volpi, Genoa (2025), and Ono Gallery, Los Angeles (2016). Group shows include Almost Molting, Arario Gallery, Shanghai (2025); Burgos, Falardeau, Goodroad, Fernberger Gallery, Los Angeles (2025); Temple Gallery, Los Angeles (2024); Reisig and Taylor Contemporary, Los Angeles (2024); Sade, Los Angeles (2022, 2024); Bel Ami, Los Angeles (2023); From the Desk of Lucy Bull, Los Angeles (2019); Insect Gallery, Los Angeles (2019); Sandy Gallery, Los Angeles (2019); and Ed Mell Gallery, Phoenix (2018).

Rimantė Mikulovičiūtė (b. 1987, Trakai) is a Lithuanian-born painter based in London. She studied painting at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm and the Academy of Fine Arts in Vilnius before graduating from the Royal College of Art in 2025. Her work has been exhibited in Sweden, Lithuania and the UK, most recently in group shows at Safehouse, London (2025) and RCA MA Degree Show, London (2025).

Benjamin Sasserson (b. 2000, Skørping, Denmark) lives and works in Odense. He studied at Funen Art Academy, Odense. Notable exhibitions include Self-Portraits, GRIMM, New York (2024), and He Never Said a Mumbling Word, Painters Painting Paintings, Odense (2023).

Bu Shi (b. 1993, Yunnan, China) is a painter based in Italy. He studied painting at Sichuan University, College of Fine Arts, and received an MA in Visual Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna in 2020. Solo exhibitions include Double Double Gallery, Beijing (2021); CAR Gallery, Bologna (2020); and MOUart Gallery, Beijing (2019). Recent group exhibitions include The Darkest Hour, SARAHCROWN, New York (2024); Le jardin des délices, Claire Gastaud, Paris (2024); Ettore Fico – Contemporary Dialogues, Bevilacqua La Masa Foundation, Venice (2023); and Sine Qua Non, CAR DRDE, Bologna (2022), where he was awarded an honourable mention in the Critics and Collectors Award (Zucchelli Foundation, Bologna).

Dylan Williams (b. 1995, Wales) is a painter based in London. He studied at Swansea College of Art and is currently completing a postgraduate programme at The Royal Drawing School. Recent exhibitions include Forget-me-nots, 1969 Gallery, New York (2024); In the Long Silence, Workplace, Newcastle (2025); Bright Night, with Jorg Kratz, Dans les Yeux d’Elsa, Paris (2024); Shudder Mornings, Cabin, Berlin (2023); Recent Paintings, with James Morse, Scroll Gallery, New York (2023); A Room With a View, Vardan Gallery, Los Angeles (2023); Moodlight, Platform Gallery, Antwerp (2022); and Softly through darkness, Taymour Grahne Projects, London (2022).