Ian Williams: Gamepiece

Ian Williams, Vertical Interface III, 2022. Oil on canvas, 120 x 180cm. Courtesy: the artist and MOORE CONTEMPORARY, Perth.

MOORE CONTEMPORARY presents Gamepiece by Ian Williams, marking  his first solo exhibition with the gallery.

Williams presents a new suite of paintings steeped in his primary concerns with the interpretation of reality within virtual environments and how this can be expressed through painting. Using found objects from video games, he uses the conventions of still life painting to explore the properties of the virtual everyday object. Williams produces commanding painterly compositions that shift between a sense of landscape and stage set. The viewer is invited to navigate the tableau sometimes disarmed by what might be the true sense of scale, proportion, gravity or obstacle.

“Comparable to an earlier period of still life art that utilised the motif of the spill to symbolise the dangers and pleasures of abundance—with such paintings commonly showing the viewer that “goblets have over-turned and spilled, crumbs lie scattered on the table”—Williams’ paintings depict objects in a state of ricochet as if to embody the speed and disorientation of digital content.” – Francis Russell, catalogue essay for Gamepiece, 2023.

Opening Event: Friday 24 March, 6pm.

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