Will Teather: Infinite Perpectives

About

British artist Will Teather (b. 1980) is known for creating images that reveal a unique imagination combined with a mastery of traditional skills. His figurative paintings and drawings often depict curious characters caught up in uncanny situations. With influences as diverse as Flemish still life, baroque art and Weimar painters, the artist enters into direct conversation with the history of painting, with the aim of bringing a contemporary sensibility to the table. His latest body of work consists of impressively dimensioned spherical canvasses bringing something new and pioneering to the tradition of realist painting.
 
Infinite Perspectives consists of three-dimensional paintings on globes and unusually formed canvases that employ an innovative type of inverted perspective, giving a 360° view of a space. Both the perspective and the representation slyly shift, depending on which point you look at them. One globe shows a detailed bookshop interior that reveals different aspects of the shop as it turns. Another is filled with doves in flight; viewed from multiple viewpoints it creates the sensation of being in the centre of the flock as they swoop around.
 
‘Infinite perspectives is a project that explores new ground in the depiction of space, blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture’ explained Will.
 
The origins of Teather’s work lie in magical realism. The carnival-esque and a sense of the uncanny are favourite subjects. He wants to create extraordinary visual spectacles through painting. As Teather says, ‘It's about the relationship between the 2D and the 3D, and about creating something closer to the way we see. Our eyes are spheres and rotate around a space and I wanted to find a way to depict that’. As a lecturer in drawing, he is also interested in contributing to our journey through art history to the present day, and sees perspective as a fundamental part of that journey.
 
At the 10th anniversary edition of the Other Art Fair (2015) Teather’s first finished globe attracted rave reviews and sold for £10,800, breaking both his personal record and the fair’s for a single sale – the first time any sale in the event's history reached five figures. The spherical painting sold to a collector who owns works by some of the world’s leading artists.

Will Teather trained at Central St Martins and Chelsea College of Art & Design, and his paintings have featured in over 100 gallery exhibitions and publications, alongside works by Dali, Picasso, Banksy and Murakami. He has received numerous grants, scholarships and awards, besides been a finalist in international art prizes such as the Celeste Prize and Cork Street Open Exhibition. He has been Artist-in-Residence for venues including the Arts Student League of New York, Aberdeen Arts Centre and the Anteros Arts Foundation. Teather's work is held in a number of notable collections in the UK and overseas. Work has been acquired by Matthew Bourne (choreographer/ director), Peter Stephen (Lord Provost of Aberdeen), the Aude Gotto Collection, The Wolterton & Mannington Estate and The Modern Artist's Gallery. Commissioners for projects include Arts Council England, the City of Aberdeen (under curatorial care of Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums), Norfolk County Council and Ana Silvera (singer). He is an Associate Lecturer at Norwich University of the Arts.

Teather is Artist-in-Residence at Norwich Arts Centre.

Infinite Perspectives runs from 24 June-6 August, alongside the British Art Show 8 at venues across Norwich from 24 June to 4 September.

www.willteather.com