GERARD WILLIAMS, 1959 / UK

By setting out to disrupt established views, preconceptions or perceptions, the work of Gerard Williams invites the audience to reflect upon the validity and origin of aspects of their native understanding. Specific assumptions, expectations or prejudices are thereby exposed and called into question. The work achieves this aim partly through careful choice and application of materials and means relative to context, including location. Varied material means and staging are deployed as appropriate. These components of the approach work together to articulate the intended disruption. The work involves engaging with key issues around the use of space, material, audience and staging. Usually it is centred upon reactions and responses to a range of contexts, (exhibition agendas, place etc.) Often the work takes the form of a temporary installation. A wide range of specific aspects of context can form an initial focus and starting point. These could be, for example, spatial characteristics, historical background, curatorial framing, the audience, statistics. The work excites reaction through use of humour and gentle provocation.

Solo exhibitions since 2000:
2002  ‘Fictional Neighbors’, Parker’s Box, New York City, USA.
2002  ‘Provenance’, medievalmodern, London, UK.

Selected group exhibitions since 2000:
2007  'Anytown, the mundane city in contemporary art', Mascalls Gallery,
Paddock Wood, Kent, UK.
2007  'Selection Box', Parker’s Box, New York.
2006  'My Solo Show', Beyond the Valley, London.
2006  'If it didn’t exist you’d have to invent it'  a partial history, The
Showroom, London, UK.
2006  'Sculpture/Object', Stoke-on-Trent, Potteries Museum and Art Gallery
2005-6  Handel Street Projects, London, inaugural show.
2005 'Textile 05', Kaunas Art Biennial, Lithuania.
2005 'Sense of Place, Place of Sense', Beacon Art Project, Lincolnshire, UK.
2004,5,6 'arttextiles 3', touring the UK.
2004-2005 '..dreaming of a white..' Curated by Gerard Williams and Danica
Maier for Arts and Business, London.
2004 'GDP', new work for the Frieze Art Fair London, Parker's Box stand, New
York City, USA.
2004 Invited non gallery artists, Volker Marschall Gallery, Düsseldorf.
2004 ‘Fragments’ Richard Deacon, Gerard Williams, medievalmodern, London
2003 'Sculpture in 20th Century Britain', Henry Moore Institute and Leeds
City Art Gallery
2002 'Bring and Buy', (From a curatorial idea by Sally O'Reilly), Transit
Space, London
2000 'Modular Loops', Parker's Box, New York City

Selected publications since 2000:
2007 'Interior Worlds', (monograph). Fraser Muggeridge Studio, London.
2005 'Textile: the Journal of Cloth and Culture', (peer review journal),
Volume 3, issue 3.
c4000 word commissioned interview/profile with critic Sally O’Reilly. 2005 'Textile 05', catalogue, Kaunas Biennal, Lithuania. 287pp. 2005 ‘Sense of Place, Place of Sense’ Beacon exhibition catalogue
(commissioned essays).
2004 'arttextiles 3', Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery pp92 (commissioned
essays).
2003 'Sculpture in 20th Century Britain', Leeds City Art Gallery and Henry
Moore Institute, Leeds, UK. 2003 Braziers International Artists Workshop
'02, London.
2002 'Provenance', Gerard Williams, medievalmodern, London. (Monograph)
2001 'Invisible London', Elipsis, London.
2001 'Postgraduate Textiles', graduation catalogue text, Goldsmiths College,
London.
2000 'T:2k', Undergraduate Textiles graduation catalogue text, Goldsmiths
College, London.

Awards since 2000:
2004 Research Support Award, Goldsmiths College, London, UK.
2004 Arts Council of England, support award for 'Fragments', medievalmodern,
London
2003 Paul Hamlyn Foundation, 2003 Awards for Visual Artists,(shortlisted)
2000 The British Council, 'Grants to Artists Scheme' award, for 'Modular
Loops', at Parker's Box, NYC

Collections:
Foundations, Public Buyers and Public Collections:
Arts Council Collection UK; Contemporary Art Society UK;
Diputación Provincial de Valencia, Spain;
Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo per L'Arte, Turin, Italy;
Castello di Rivara, Italy;
Leeds City Art Gallery, UK.
Private Collections in:  Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, U.S.A.

Education:
1978-1981 Brighton Polytechnic: Faculty of Art and Design
1977-1978 Manchester Polytechnic: Faculty of Art and Design
1970-1977 Manchester High School of Art

Teaching:
2006 Galway Mayo Institute, Irish Republic, Visiting tutor, Undergraduate
Fine Art.
2002-2006 Goldsmiths College, Visual Arts Department:
Postgraduate Textiles MA Course Leader and joint leadership of Postgraduate
Textiles.
1997-2002 Goldsmiths College, Visual Arts Department:
Undergraduate Textiles, Visiting Tutor, studio practice and critical
studies.
and Postgraduate Textiles, Visiting Tutor.
1998-2004 West Dean College: Tapestry Weaving Diploma, (Awarding
Postgraduate Diploma of the University of Sussex). Visiting Tutor, studio
and contextual studies.
1995 & 2001 Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art, Oxford University.
1999 & 95 University of the West of England, Bristol, Faculty of Art, Media
and Design.
1998 Humberside University, Hull School of Art and Design.
1997 Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Marseille. Visiting exhibiting
artist.
1996 & 93-4 University of Central England, Birmingham. Visiting tutor, fine
art
1996 Akademie Voor Beeldende Kunst,  Enschede, Netherlands. AKI 2
Postgraduate School.
Visiting tutor.
1992-1994 Winchester School of Art, Sculpture School. Visiting tutor, BA and
MA programmes.
1987 Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minnesota, U.S.A. and
     Wendle Castle Furniture School, New York State, U.S.A.  Visiting artist