William S. Burroughs: Can you all hear me?

As the final event celebrating the centenary of William S. Burroughs’s birth, October Gallery, London, presents an exhibition of his art, including rarely-displayed pieces. The exhibition opens 4th December, 2014 and continues until 7th February, 2015, and will highlight artists who have been profoundly influenced by Burroughs’ life, including Brion Gysin, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Liliane Lijn, Shezad Dawood and Cerith Wyn Evans.

Throughout all Burroughs work - art, novels, essays, film and sound experiments - Burroughs wove a passionate message: deconstruct control systems and think for yourself. His art is a personal exploration of intelligence. Artists working in all genres have heard his message, and references to Burroughs’ works are now deeply embedded in our culture, from painting to film to advertising to literature to journalism to music.

This centenary year has seen William S. Burroughs: A Life, the definitive and lauded biography by British writer Barry Miles. Burroughs' aesthetic and methodologies have influenced generations of writers, artists, filmmakers and musicians. Featuring Burroughs’ paintings, drawings, and sculpture, the exhibition will celebrate the transcendent magic of his work and its influence upon present art, culture and media. The show will be the last event of the centenary year.

October Gallery’s long association with William Burroughs began in 1988 with his second solo exhibition, his first outside of the United States. The founders of the October Gallery have worked with Burroughs since 1974. Burroughs pioneered incisive tools - ‘cut-ups’- to deconstruct mechanisms of institutionalized control systems that corrupt inborn intelligence.