Vanessa Maurice-Williams
Hove
I make installations that I view as three-dimensional paintings.
The magic and beauty of natural landscape is what feeds my imagination. I want to create works that discuss the frame, the stage, the portal, and push the viewer to unplug momentarily.
I make large-scale installations that are entrances or thresholds that distort the viewer’s awareness of space – some works are physically interactive, and others illusionary, much like a trompe l’oeil painting. I am interested in not only challenging the viewer’s physical pathway, but their cognitive and emotional responses by creating works that uphold a playful buoyancy, referencing my interest in Winnicott’s philosophy on play and my fascination in early 20th Century cartoon. The scale is of fundamental importance - immense and comical, the works loom above the viewer, fighting for their attention. This monumentality is juxtaposed by the choice of materials, which are ephemeral, such as industrial plastics. The sense of the monumental built from the throwaway, and the sheer playfulness of the pieces, relate to the transience of the theatre and hint at the notion of performance. My work is rooted in the history of painting and my three-dimensional approach contributes to current debates on the ‘extended field of painting’. I am a founding member of Artists’ Union England and I was the Treasurer from September 2013 - June 2016. My ambitions are to create more site dependent works, exploring the framework of the portal, possibly looking more into the realm of public art, and also doing more collaborations with other artists.
Education
2013 The Slade School of Fine Art - MFA Painting (Merit)
2011 Chelsea College of Art and Design, London - Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art (Merit)
2004 Edinburgh College of Art, Edinburgh - BA (Hons) Drawing and Painting (2.1)
2001 Camberwell College of Arts, London - BTEC Foundation Studies (Distinction)
Shortlists
2014 Bloomberg New Contemporaries
2014 The Derek Hill Foundation Scholarship, The British School at Rome
2013 The AIR mini residency, Kings Cross, London
2011 The Clifford Chance Sculpture Prize, London
Events
2014 The bARTer Shop (collective pop-up shop) Unit 3, Central Parade, Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London
2013 The Big Draw, 38 Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London
Selected Group Exhibitions
2019 ‘Riot!’, SEAS – Socially Engaged Art Salon / BMECP Centre
10/A Fleet St. Brighton
2018 'The whole is other (than the sum of its parts)' ONCA, Brighton
2018 'Here and There', (two-man show with Matt Tarran), Gallery Lock In, Brighton
2017 'SPLIT (land) SCAPES', (two-man show with Anja Borowicz), Gallery Lock In, Brighton
2016 'Pool', The Griffin Gallery, London
2015 'Fidget', Brighton Digital Festival, APEC
2014 ‘SEM: Socially Engineered Machine’, The Control Room, Bristol City Council
2014 'Studio. Tomorrow. Buy me things like machines', East Streets Arts, 14 Warren Street, London
2013 'Slice', Hanmi Gallery, London
2013 'Midden', Vulpes Vulpes, Bermondsey, London
2013 'MFA/MA The Slade School of Fine Art Degree Show', London
2013 'Cities Methodologies', UCL Urban Laboratory, The Slade Research Centre, London
2013 'Talk to her', Holy Trinity Church, Prince Consort Road, London (two-man show with Lucy Boyle)
2012 'Store-See-Predict', The Slade Research Centre, London (collaboration with composer, Chris Corcoran)
2012 'And you, what do you WORSHIP?', The Crypt Gallery, St Pancras Church, London
2011 'Slade at Testbed 1', Testbed, Elcho Street, Battersea, London (two-man show with Cecily Dryden)
2011 'Chelsea Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art Summer Show', Chelsea College of Art and Design, London
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