Imi Williams
Degree: MA Painting
University: Royal College of Art
Graduation Year: 2024
New Blood Art Commentary
Cascade and recess in these paintings equalise into stillness and movement. In a choreography of contrast, colours will pull against the magnetic black or blue swathes into new intensity. Lush deeper tones with vivid bright ones. These works by Imogen Williams are aerial and gymnastic, plush and undulating. They bring to mind the soft fluidity of Georgia O’Keeffe’s organic abstractions.
It’s the versatility of the paint medium that intrigues the artist, that she uses to draw out the tension between control and spontaneity. With colour she creates a glow, also giving the sense of a living canvas. There’s a sense of being compelled, mesmerised: the fascination that brings you in closer to look at nature or at art. These paintings are a locus: for the real feeling of imagined realms.
Artist Statement
I am an abstract painter living in London currently studying MA Painting at the Royal College of Art.
My paintings depict imagined spaces that I create by building up an amalgamation of organic brushstrokes to elicit a sense of harmony and balance in the final piece. Form and colour are used as vehicles to achieve this, and I explore the interplay between the colours I select. I am fascinated by the fluid and luscious qualities of oil paint, and in each piece I aim to celebrate the medium through soft, painterly techniques.
I am interested in the tension between control and spontaneity and aim to strike a balance between the two in my work. My compositions are not planned before I put brush to canvas; they develop gradually and often go through many changes before reaching an end point. I use both intuitive and considered brushstrokes that curl, bend and trace across the surface, coalescing into forms that interact and overlap to find their place within the space of the canvas.
My works are contemplative and dynamic; I invite the viewer into a vibrant space where they can follow each motion and gesture and are transported into an unseen world. I encourage viewers to make their own decisions about what they see in the works, as they may resemble aspects of reality but each express something that does not physically exist.
Group Exhibitions
(2023) Annihilation, Hockney Gallery, Royal College of Art, South Kensington, London
(2023) If You're Lost This Is Where You Can Be Found, Safehouse 2, Peckham, London