Sue Williams (born 1956 in Cornwall) is a British visual artist, trained, living and working in Wales. [1]
Sue Williams was born in 1956 in Redruth, Cornwall. [2] Williams studied art in Cardiff in the 1970s, later getting her Master of Arts from Cardiff College of Art (UWIC). [1]
Williams made the news in 2009 when she was awarded £20,000 from National Lottery funds (via the Arts Council of Wales) to finance a study of cultural attitudes towards women's bottoms. [3] [4] She explained to the Western Mail that the money would cover living costs while she built up a new collection of three dimensional work, which would partly consist of plaster casts of all parts of women's bodies. "My present work stems from a desire to visually explore and understand issues related to the feminine ideal - the desire to change body shape, the pressure to create perfection and to compromise a personal identity" she said. [5] Williams had been inspired by a visit to Zimbabwe, where her work had been taken down from two galleries because it portrayed women's backsides. [5]
Williams was a member of the 56 Group Wales between 2008 and 2009. [6]
In 2009 Williams visited China to study their gender politics and the dynamics of communication between men and women. She was invited back again in 2013 to take part in a touring exhibition called Open Books. The exhibition subsequently toured to Australia. [7]
Her work is represented in the collection of the University of South Wales. [8] She is currently a lecturer in fine art at University of Wales Trinity Saint David in Swansea. [7]
In 2000 Williams was the recipient of the Welsh National Eisteddfod Gold Medal for Fine Art [9] and the Rootstein Hopkins Foundation Award for painting. [1] In 2005 she was one of eight shortlisted artists (the only British representative) for the second biannual Artes Mundi Prize. [10]
Sir John Kyffin Williams, was a Welsh landscape painter who lived at Pwllfanogl, Llanfairpwll, on the Island of Anglesey. Williams is widely regarded as the defining artist of Wales during the 20th century.
Josef Herman, was a highly regarded Polish-British painter who influenced contemporary art, particularly in the United Kingdom. His work often depicted workers as its subject and was inherently political. He was among more than a generation of eastern European Jewish artists who emigrated to escape persecution and worked abroad. For eleven years he lived in Ystradgynlais, a mining community in South Wales.
Myfanwy Haycock (1913–1963) was a Welsh poet, illustrator, BBC broadcaster, and journalist. She was born Blodwen Myfanwy Haycock in Pontnewynydd, Wales, near Pontypool, in the traditional county of Monmouthshire,.
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Martyn Jones is a British contemporary painter who works from his studio in Cardiff, Wales.
Welsh art refers to the traditions in the visual arts associated with Wales and its people. Most art found in, or connected with, Wales is essentially a regional variant of the forms and styles of the rest of the British Isles, a very different situation from that of Welsh literature. The term Art in Wales is often used in the absence of a clear sense of what "Welsh art" is, and to include the very large body of work, especially in landscape art, produced by non-Welsh artists in Wales since the later 18th century.
Cardiff School of Art & Design (CSAD) is one of the five schools that comprise Cardiff Metropolitan University. It originated as the Cardiff School of Art in 1865.
Philip Nicol is a Welsh painter.
Shani Rhys James MBE is a Welsh painter based in Llangadfan, Powys. She has been described as "arguably one of the most exciting and successful painters of her generation" and "one of Wales’ most significant living artists". She was elected to the Royal Cambrian Academy of Art in 1994. In the 2006 New Years Honours she was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for "services to art".
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Artes Mundi is an international arts organisation based in Cardiff. Established in 2002, it is committed to supporting international contemporary visual artists whose work engages with social reality and lived experience. The Artes Mundi exhibition and prize takes place biennially, running a sustained programme of outreach and learning projects alongside the public exhibition and prize giving.
Art in Cardiff refers to the culture of visual arts in Cardiff, capital city of Wales. The visual arts in Cardiff have a much more recent history than many British cities, due to it being a very small town until rapid growth took place in the mid nineteenth century. Cardiff School of Art originated in 1865 and the first major public art exhibition took place in 1870. The town became a city in 1905, after which time it gained further importance, for example with the creation of a new National Museum. Into the 21st century it has a thriving art scene.
The Gold Medal of the National Eisteddfod of Wales is awarded annually in three categories for excellence in Fine Art, Architecture, or Craft and Design.
Y Lle Celf is an annual art, craft and architecture exhibition held during the National Eisteddfod of Wales, claimed to be the biggest temporary art exhibition in Europe.
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Esther Margaret Grainger (1912–1990) was a Welsh artist and teacher.
Eric Malthouse (1914–1997) was a British artist and print maker who spent most of his career in South Wales.