William Quigley’s Skrapper aphorism, “Complicated art at complicated prices,” distills his engagement with the intellectual and economic dynamics of the contemporary art market. Both ironic and declarative, the phrase acknowledges aesthetic ambition while confronting the realities of literal access to a work of art. Emerging from the downtown New York milieu his commentary is a reflection on Picasso, Braque, and Magritte's incorporation of text in surrealist works, and in direct dialogue with figures such as Andy Warhol, Barbara Kruger, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, Quigley treats language as painterly material—using text as image, critique, and cultural signage. The repetition of “complicated” underscores a practice that moves fluently between abstraction and commentary, positioning Skrapper as both participant in and reflection on the structures that define contemporary critical thinking.
