TFAC Artist Simon Willems @ Elephant West

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July 3, 2019 | |
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Simon Willems will be presenting his PHD at Elephant West. Simon is one of our TFAC artists for both UK and international. He also featured in the third elephant magazine and will be installing his exhibition at the end of June.

The show will have an private view this Friday 5th July from 6pm onwards.

Simon will also offer a talk to Colart employees on why he uses the colours he uses by Winsor & Newton on Thursday 11th July from 4pm (and don’t forget the discount on drinks!)

‘Killing Me Softly (after Hermit Playing a Violin  by Carl Spitzweg 1865)’ 55 x 50cm, Oil and acrylic linen, 2018.

How Not to Disappear Completely exhibition

Artist Simon Willems is installing How Not to Disappear Completely, an exhibition of paintings featuring images of corporate team-building activities being played out in hermit landscapes taken from art history. This body of work is the culmination of Willems’ practice-based PhD at the University of Reading.

Inspired in part by the late hermit Tom Leppard – otherwise known as the Leopard Man of Skye for his wildcat tattoos, with which he sought publicity to fund his isolation – Willems explores the idea of withdrawal as a paradox of presenting whilst retreating.

Taking Leppard’s decision to surrender twenty years of self-imposed exile on the Isle of Skye in 2008, in order to book himself into a local retirement home, Willems treats Leppard as a catalyst for reframing the image of isolation as a site of fabrication. Muted and lunar-like, Willems’ paintings appear otherworldly and slow, deploying porous layers of paint that striated and scraped through, suggest decaying tapestries.

Left: ‘Motivation Pull (after Hermit in a Landscape by Carlo Bonavia 1757)’ 60 x 60cm Oil & acrylic on linen 2015

Right: ‘Neverending Lanyard (after Sleeping Hermit by Jospeh-marie Vien 1750)’ 90 x 70cm Oil, Crackle paste and acrylic on linen 2019)

Who is Simon Willems?

Simon Willems is a London-based artist who works with us on TFAC UK and international. Having graduated from the Royal College of Art with an MA in Painting, he has shown extensively in Europe, North America and Asia.

These include solo exhibitions at:

  • Torrance Art Museum (USA),
  • FRAC Auvergne (France),
  • Galerie Polaris (France),
  • Xero, Kline & Coma (UK),
  • Elaine Levy Project (Belgium),
  • Percymiller Gallery (UK), Wallspace (USA)
  • Mark Moore Gallery (USA).

 

Willems’ work has featured in numerous group exhibitions including shows at:

  • 176 Project Space – Zabludowicz Collection (UK),
  • Lion & Lamb Gallery (UK),
  • FRAC Haute-Normandie (France),
  • FRAC Auvergne (France),
  • Artothèque de Caen (France),
  • Galerie Forde Espace Contemporain (Switzerland),
  • RAID Projects (USA),
  • Vegas Gallery (London)
  • Galleri SE (Norway), amongst others.

 

His work has featured and been reviewed in:

  • Flashart,
  • Art Review,
  • Elephant Magazine,
  • ART US,
  • Le Monde,
  • WOUND,
  • El Pais,
  • La Libre Belgique
  • Beautiful Decay

and was included in the survey painting publication ‘A Brush with the Real – Figurative Painting Today’ (Laurence King Publishing).

In 2015 Willems completed a doctoral study trip to the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, which was sponsored by the Swedish Embassy in London. Willems’ work is included in several public collections including:

  • the Walker Art Center (USA),
  • Bronx Museum of the Arts (USA),
  • FRAC Auvergne (France),
  • FRAC Haute-Normandie (France),
  • National Museum of Gdansk (Poland)
  • The Zabludowicz Collection (UK).