William A. Rabinovitch (b.1936)

Statement: “I am constantly trying to evolve my work and push my boundaries. My art making reflects a process of spontaneous invention and poetic feeling - while exploring the potentials of great color. The aim of art is to give expression to the inner vision of man, to open the spiritual foundation of life and the world.” 

Born in New London, CT, Rabinovitch studied to be an engineer and went to fly jet planes for the military and worked with some of the top programs in the country, including RCA, NASA and General Dynamics.  Not wanting to partake in violence, he objected to any job that involved bombs and weapon development. During the Cold War his decision proved to be very difficult and led him to jump from project to project.  After learning to paint in 1961 at the Boston Museum School, Rabinovitch’s live would never be the same. Influenced by Jack Kerouac’s book “On The Road”, he sold his belongings, bought a VW bus and drove to Height Ashbury, CA to begin his career as a full-time artist, he later moved to Monterey and earned his MFA at the San Francisco Art Institute.  After a 10-year stint in California, Marcia Tucker convinced Bill to move to Soho in 1973 for the Whitney Independent Study Program (WISP).  He found an apartment on Crosby St, where he has remained and continued his career as an artist.  His studios at 63 Crosby and 74 grand street placed him in the epicenter of one of the most influential parts of art history.  Bill quickly became a popular artist to some of the greats. In 1977 Bill and a group of friends attacked the Whitney Biennial, creating the Whitney Counterweight. An inclusive downtown show judged by artists, for artists. Along with making large scale works on canvas, Rabinovitch was documenting the art world through his camera: capturing the Soho art seen in the 80s, 90s and 2000s, covering many icons such as Chuck Close, Damien Hirst, Julien Schnable, Nam June Paik, Lauri Anderson, Frank Stella, Richard Serra and many more. Bill has never settled with his work, constantly living in a creative process, he is always striving to evolve his process and has dedicated his life to his craft.

Bill Rabinovitch, who has lived and worked in Soho for fifty years is a kind of paradox. He is an art world fixture who has met just about everyone but who has steered clear of the easy glitz of the commercial art world. Uninterested in what sells, but very interested in chasing and then rendering his inner visions, Rabinovitch has described himself as a “starving artist” locked in an endless cycle of creation. His figurative paintings are really quite abstract—including some layered with acrylic, epoxy resin and glitter—and his digital drawings crackle with the fire of electronically generated ideas. Everything that comes his way, including money, ideas and spiritual enlightenment is energetically cycled back into the work itself and the result is an oeuvre that dazzles as it discombobulates. Come to his 2023 exhibit and expect glimpses of a vivid inner world that will take you outside and beyond your normal expectations.

-John Seed

David J. Brown, author of Mavericks of the Mind, put it well when he wrote the following about my work: 

"From out of the jangled urban machinery of New York City emerges the hopeful vision and optimistic cry of Figurative Expressionist William Rabinovitch. Working with acrylics on large panels, Rabinovitch masterfully expresses some of the timeless archetypal dramas of the evolving human spirit. Balancing paradoxes of nature--primate past with angel future, violent seriousness with playful silliness, sensuous biology with sharp technology--Rabinovitch's work is  pulsatingly alive, vibrating with pleasant emotional explosions of color and forms.  Most of Rabinovitch's work is fun and entertaining, as he blends together slidin  erotic and mechanical forms with a wise and subtle high humor. Perhaps Rabinovitch achieves his greatest effect by layering forms upon forms, creating a multidimensional quality that reveals deeper and deeper depth to the viewer with  careful observation."