Sue Williams (artist)

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

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]

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.[6]

Her work is represented in the collection of the University of South Wales.[7] She is currently a lecturer in fine art at University of Wales Trinity Saint David, Swansea.[6]

Recognition

In 2000 she was the recipient of the Wales National Eisteddfod Gold Medal for Fine Art[8] 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.[9]

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. 1 2 Emma Geliot, ed. (Winter 2014). "An Open Mind". Culture Colony Quarterly (Arts magazine) (Cardiff). p. 36. (images of Williams' work on pages 37 - 41)
  7. ↑ "Oriel y Bont: Museum Collection". University of South Wales. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  8. ↑ "Gold Medal for Fine Art". The National Eisteddfod of Wales. Retrieved 3 November 2014.
  9. ↑ Karen Price (28 September 2005). "Behind the Artes Mundi shortlist". Wales Online (Media Wales). Retrieved 6 November 2014.

External links

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