About and artist statement.

It is exciting that after a break of 20 + years, and from the experience of starting again, picking up threads, that I can honestly say my current work links so directly to work I made in my 20s, it follows the same enquiry. It is a relief to know I have discovered how to express using paint with authenticity and deep understanding, without compromise of creating one single ‘image’, and not painting for commodity.

From not knowing what to paint and so painting what I found around, I now engage with the materiality of paint to create and install responses to what is environmentally around me.  It is site and place based. I still work with what is there. At the core of my work, my ‘bottom line’ is to use paint on a transparent surface which is shaped, hung, placed, assembled in physical space. Not one viewpoint but an infinite amount of possible images. I have expanded every element of what can be considered the core elements of painting…where we can see it, surface, 2 dimensions, commodity, movement, light, colour, inclusion, active looking, role of artist….and the notion of permanence.

Every project is an event. Every piece of work is an assemblage in time. It captures the moment, the context…and can never quite be repeated again in the same way. People's photographs serve as document and as souvenir…people are active to experience the work and have ownership via the camera. People can frame infinite compositions and then see what looks like an abstract painting on their phones.

I am currently collecting material and research to include shadow as disruptors, as impermanent elements, as shapes we live with. Shadow reflects our mortality, our environments, and the passing of time. There is nothing quite like excellent use of the variations of paint as a medium that can reflect the unsaid, the subconscious and the moment it came into being.

I invite you to see, to connect, to see again and own the spaces we live in. 

About (by T Mikich) :

Kathy Williams is a visual artist and educator whose practice is rooted in inclusivity and democratising the creative process. With an MA in Painting from the Royal College of Art, London, and a QTS and MA in Arts and Education from UCL, her career has been dedicated to exploring innovative ways to involve diverse communities in her work. Drawing on her own experiences as a neurodiverse individual from a working-class background, Williams creates opportunities for collaboration and dialogue, challenging traditional art-making hierarchies. She uses she/her pronouns.