William Roberts
b. 1977, Cardiff
Lives and works in Cardiff
Will Roberts, Dammit I`m Mad, 2012-18
Will Roberts is a painter. His work is often narrative, playing out stories and scenarios that he wants to tell. In his paintings he casts himself as all the central characters – he sometimes feels he is looking at himself in the third person and that the painting is a pause button of a scene or narrative.
'I’ve worked as a gallery and theatre technician for the past six years and I’ve seen a lot of stories played out on stage. I like to tell stories too. The paintings are essentially staged sets for an accumulation of multilayered fictitious stories. I use a lot of images of mirrors, of reflections, paintings of other paintings that I’ve made. On a mobile device I produce the digital precursor to the painting which has been flipped horizontally. What we see in paint is a mirrored version the screen. The titles of the paintings are palindromes. I want the painting to do the same, to ‘read’ backwards as well as forwards – as the viewer is trying to decipher the painting’s properties and imagery, they in turn become part of the making of the work. In theatre, the fourth wall is imaginary, where the audience sits. You are said to break the fourth wall if you stop pretending that it’s there. I’m trying to do this with my paintings.'
William studied Fine Art at Manchester School of Art (BA, 1999) and University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (MA, 2005). Solo shows include: The Process of Memory (Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown) and There you Aren’t (Magpie Gallery, Cardiff), 2009 as well as group shows at BayArt, Cardiff and Paintworks, Bristol. William was Artist in residence at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff in 2005, where he now works. www.instagram.com/william_j_roberts/
The artist was in the following exhibitions:
Everything.
All At Once.
At The Same Time.
g39 Fellowship TWO
No
Time
To Plan
an Ending
Links :
www.williamjroberts.com
