Welsh artist Bedwyr Williams satirises the art world he has been part of for the past 20 years.
Through sculpture, video, painting and drawing, Williams sends up this ‘fascinating circus’, from real life hierarchies and aesthetics, to online spats and humble bragging. In this major new body of work, which includes his witty and acerbic autobiographical daily Instagram drawings of the past few years, he parodies and punctures contemporary society and the culture sector.
Williams himself says: ‘It’s weird being an artist. I think about it a lot in Screwfix, in Tesco, when I’m driving, that I’m an artist. That there’s buildings that are built for us to do things in. That these buildings are often funny shapes or appear to teeter or lean but still have toilets and dustbins and all the basics as well. That the people that look at art or work in the sector often dress strangely and wear funny glasses or huge trousers and curious shoes. That there’s wealth and power and people jockeying for positions of power and wealth. I’ve met super friendly artists and curators and I’ve also met some of the most odious people I could have imagined, almost like fictional odious characters. The way artists talk to and about each other both online and offline is its own sport, and nothing in my childhood prepared me for being around people like this in buildings like this.
Bedwyr Williams’ MILQUETOAST is a Southwark Park Galleries touring exhibition in partnership with T Pawb, Wrexham and Aberystwyth Arts Centre.
Dates: 19 May – 11 July 2021. Southwark Park Gallery, SE16 2UA. Admission: free.
www.southwarkparkgalleries.org
Artworks: Bedwyr Williams