Sean Williams South Yorkshire, United Kingdom

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I am a painter and curator based at Bloc Studios in Sheffield. My paintings are made in an adapted pointillist style using acrylic on board. The majority of my subjects lie on the periphery of suburbia – sheds, unusual constructions and isolated buildings under repair – these interest me because they could stand as metaphors for the process of constructing the painting itself.

The locations portrayed in my paintings represent the in-between spaces of everyday life. Factual and symbolic, the subject matter often relates to states of being and feeling that can be as unfixed, open to question and awaiting definition as any geographical locale featured. Britain’s suburban environment functions as a catalyst when exploring a range of metaphorical and literal interpretations, in relation to ideas connected to the home and the unnoticed facets of life in the 21st Century. This is contemporary painting that reflects on the modern condition, armed with ideas of social realism and melancholia. My paintings mimic the medium of photography until the marks of the brush are revealed upon closer inspection. This discovery of intense labour shifts the viewer's focus from the subject matter depicted to the medium itself. In this respect, the work is as much a comment about the production of art as it is a reflection of contemporary urbanity. “Sean’s paintings set up a narrative, without telling it. The emotional resonance is there, the absence of people, the stillness. The way that Sean uses the paint, the long slow build up of colour slow down the looking process. This is about how light falls—and maybe about how these moments of sunlight are what can keep us going, amidst the complexities of the world around us. The profound coalesces alongside the mundane. It’s impossible to be sentimental about such a scene. Here, the landscape is a place to dump unwanted furniture, to move through. It is not a place to dwell a while.” – Dr Alison J. Carr

In the last two years I have also begun curating, working with Prosaic, a curatorial group I formed with Bryan Eccleshall. I also work independently, curating a programme of themed micro-exhibitions in the Prosaic Projects Gallery within Bloc Studios and in the Fronteer Gallery Stairwell Space in Sheffield. I was also invited to curate the Yorkshire Art Space members' exhibition at Exchange Place in November 2021.

I am also a freelance writer, working for the Our Favourite Places website, and was recently commissioned to produce a critical text to accompany the 'Geometry and Gesture' exhibition at Bloc Projects.