Born in Texas in 1956 and raised in a small town in Michigan, William DeBilzan was never exposed to fine art while growing up. As an adolescent, William developed a love for fashion but not until he moved to California would his life-long artistic exploration finally manifest. Southern California provided a deep, cultural awakening DeBilzan had not yet experienced but craved in his youth. He opened his first gallery in Laguna Beach and later received the 1999 “Event of the Year in California” award for starting the now famed First Thursday’s Art Walk. DeBilzan credits his time in Laguna as a young adult to becoming the renowned abstract expressionist he is today. More than 20 years later, DeBilzan maintains a gallery in Laguna Beach and has a second gallery and studio in Delray Beach, Florida, where he currently resides. His curious nature and intuition led to the integration of objects into his canvases – from paper, fabric and metal to any material that inspired him. Often starting with a wash, DeBilzan builds his surfaces in a way that produces a luminous glaze in one area of the canvas and thick, highly-textured impasto layers in another – a range of textures and effects with light, all on the same canvas. As a father of four, family, love and friendship have had the biggest impact on DeBilzan’s life. Coupled with a desire to share his experiences through painting, his figurative work through stick figures was born shortly thereafter. DeBilzan’s work has been included in many prominent private and public collections, including The Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building in Dubai, and the tallest hotel in the western hemisphere, The Marriott near Central Park. TV and film credits for DeBilzan’s work include: Frasier, Spin City and Burn Notice.
