Sue Williams (artist)

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Sue Williams (born 1956 in Cornwall) is a British visual artist, trained, living and working in Wales. [1]

Contents

Early life and education

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]

Work

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]

Recognition

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]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Sue Williams". WalesArts. BBC Wales. 11 December 2008. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  2. "Sue Williams", Artes Mundi, Retrieved 23 November 2014.
  3. "A bum deal". The Mirror . 30 June 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  4. "Welsh Artist Molds Butts for Cash and Culture". Fox News. 30 June 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  5. 1 2 Karen Price (11 July 2009). "Artist 'upset' at response to grant for buttock mouldings". Western Mail. Wales. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  6. Moore, David (2012). A Taste of the Avant-Garde: 56 Group Wales, 56 years. Brecon: Crooked Window. p. 66. ISBN   978-0-9563602-1-2.
  7. 1 2 Emma Geliot, ed. (Winter 2014). "An Open Mind". Culture Colony Quarterly. Cardiff: 36.
  8. "Oriel y Bont: Museum Collection". University of South Wales. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  9. "Gold Medal for Fine Art". The National Eisteddfod of Wales. Archived from the original on 30 October 2014. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  10. Karen Price (28 September 2005). "Behind the Artes Mundi shortlist". Wales Online. Media Wales. Retrieved 6 November 2014.