Simon Willems - www.simonwillems.com
Artist's Statement
"I am interested in images and ideas that eclipse the mental and physical within personalised utopias. I make paintings and drawings in various media that take observations of real events and stories as well as fictitious icons, as catalysts for fantasy based allegories. More particularly I explore those that support false comfort and prefigure the complexity of choice and purpose within contemporary culture. I am drawn to narratives where history, denial and belief systems become interchangeable. I understand this through both the individual as well as the collective agenda. It is these patterns of choice, convenience and their failure that I am engaged with.
My working process evolves slowly through several projects that run concurrently. Much of my work has a bathetic humour that seeks to highlight the absurd and vulnerable contexts in which we carve out our preferences and dreams. For instance the recent project Altitude Sickness was conceived in response to Hitler's Alpine retreat at Berchtesgarden becoming a tourist restaurant following World War 11. I explored that double-edged convenience of memory and its erasure through a fantasy of appropriated fast-food celebration. The work often indulges in art history as a library of resource that bridges seemingly disparate contexts. In the series How not to disappear completely for example, I evacuated several hermit paintings from art history, of their (former) residents, in light of the news that the Leopard Man of Skye had surrendered his seclusion after twenty five years alone, by booking himself into an old people's home in Birmingham. This real-life anchor is critical to the realisation of the project. It becomes the connection and raison d'être that informs the fantasy in my response. Other recent projects have included creationist narrative and the humanising of fictitious icons."
Simon Willems
CV
Born in Shoreham-by-sea (UK) in 1971. Lives and works in London.
SELECTED SOLO SHOWS
2011
Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles
2010
Altitude Sickness, Elaine Levy Project, Brussels
How not do disappear completely, Galleri SE, Bergen Norway
2009
Altitude sickness Galerie Polaris, Paris
Charm Offensive, Het Oude Raadhuis, Hoofddorp, Netherlands
2008
The advantages of failure, Vegas Gallery, London
Cloud Music, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica
Determinator, Galerie Polaris, Paris
2006
You must enjoy it like this, Galerie-Polaris, Paris
Don’t go weird on me, Mark Moore Gallery, Santa Monica
2005
Strangeways here we come, Wallspace , New York
2004
Recent cave painting and other exploits, Galerie-Polaris, Paris
Bad things even happen to nice people, FRAC Auvergne, Clermont Ferrand, France
2002
Folk Law, Percymiller Gallery, London
2001
Death to the Archers, Galerie Polaris, Paris
Percymiller Gallery, London
SELECTED GROUP SHOWS
2010
Fifty ways to keep your lover, Galleri SE, Bergen
An Impossible match, (curated by Liberty Roy) Galerie Polaris, Paris
Library of Babel/In and out of Place Project 176 (Zabludovicz collection), curated by Anna-Catharina Gebbers, London
Extension du domaine de la réalité, Ecole Régionale des Beaux Arts de Rennes, France
Book Of Brilliant Things, Elaine Levy Project, Brussels
Exquisite Trove (House of Fairy tales) Millenium Gallery, St. Ives
2009
Exquisite Trove (House of Fairy tales) The New Art Gallery Walsall
Polari Vegas Gallery London
Horn of Plenty (House of Fairy Tales), Viktor Wynd Fine Art inc. London
(des)accords communs FRAC Haute-Normandie, Rouen (France)
I am by birth a Genovese, Galerie Forde Esapce D’art Contemporain, Geneva
Phenomenon:New Perspectives in Painting Al-Sabah Art, Kuwait Art Foundation, Kuwait
Take the A train, Galerie Polaris, Paris
Enjoy Grusenmeyer Art Gallery, Deurle, Belgium
The Open West, Summerfield Gallery, Pitville studios, Uni. of Gloucestershire
No end in sight, Vegas Gallery, London
2008
London Calling Grusenmeyer Art Gallery, Duerle, Belgium
Awopbopaloobop, Transition Gallery, London
Terra Firma FOLD Gallery, London
Fake ID Vegas Gallery, London
l’experience utile, Galerie Polaris, Paris
Drawings Peacock Projects - Pullens Yard, London
No end in sight Galerie Polaris, Paris
Project (OR) Centrifugal Projects, Art Rotterdam
2007
Galleri SE, Bergen, Norway
Galerie Polaris, Paris
Inter-view - galleryThe space, Seoul, Korea
Ground Zero, Size Zero, Vegas Gallery, London
A travers le miroir (le secret) -Musee d’art et d’Archeolgie, Aurillac, France
Galerie Brunnhofer, Linz, Austria
2006
Flow Charting Raid Projects, Los Angeles
London Elsewhere Galerie Bernhard Knaus, Manheim, Germany
Mon de l’ouvre – l’ouvre Galerie Polaris, Paris
Mark Moore Gallery Presents at Rokeby, London
Une simple question de temps, Musee Crozatier, Le Puy-en-Velay, France
2005
Extensions du paysage - Espace Boudeville, Dompierre sur Besbre, France
2004
39 Xmas show –, 39 Mitchell St - London
Soleil Vert Musse D’art Roger Quillot, France
Sale et Sucre - Galerie-Polaris, Paris
2003
Side Track -, Percy Miller Gallery, London
Sale et Sucre –, Galerie Polaris, Paris
Western Spaghetti (Les nouveaux conquerants), Clermont Ferrand, France
La Maitre des ombres –, Fonds d’art et Contemporain, Montlucon, France
2002
Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London
Four Colleges (A T Kearney HQ), London
Reverbere Gallery, Lyon (France)
2001
Miniature Madness –, Winkley St Studios, London
2000
Recent Works, Galerie Polaris, Paris
Soft & Gentle, Gallery Westland Place, London
Assembly-Project, Jubilee Street (Whitechapel), London
Together Again, Pumphouse Gallery, London
En-route , Galerie Claudia Gros-selbeck, Dusseldorf
1999
RCA Group Show, Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris
1997
Crinkle Wharf Gallery, London
1996
Gilchrist Fisher Award, Cadogan Contemporary, London
1993
Just Found , St.Baafsabdij (Gent) Belgium
1992
NATFHE Headquarters, London
EDUCATION
1998-00 MA (RCA) Painting, Royal College of Art
1991-94BA (hons) Fine Art –1st Class, Nottingham Trent University
