Will Copley

Will Copley

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Degree: Fine Art
University: Newcastle University
Graduation Year: 2022

New Blood Art Commentary

If “watching the sun rise feels very different to looking at a painting of the subject” as the artist describes, these oscillating claims to vividness in the reality of light and its representation, result in suspended, sensual moments of colour in his Light Paintings. In exploring that there’s no reality without light, let alone any possible representation of reality, these works are like playful sacraments, mystical and analytical. 

As in Dan Flavin’s icons and monuments constructed of light tubes, and James Turrell’s installation in the crater of a dormant volcano in Arizona – inspired by the Incas’ architecture, and seeking to create a “controlled environment for the contemplation of of light” – there’s a celestial engagement that comes from working with light, and for it. Will Copley uses colour as it manifests across both pigment and LED; making LED paintings on wood in an admixture of the material and immaterial. The boundaries between organic and artificial, subjective and objective are in motion in these contemplative works; you wonder what JMW Turner would make of these contemporary theatres of light.

 

Artist Statement

Copley’s work explores the relationship between different instances of colour; material colour, such as pigment and immaterial colour, such as LEDs. Colour being a brain-based phenomena, it is not something we are able to touch. Despite this, some colours can feel so tangible when compared to others. Watching the sun rise feels very different to looking at a painting of the same subject. Copley’s Light Paintings explore the space between material and immaterial instances of colour and the areas that exist between what we feel when we experience light, and what we think when we see material representations of it. By using both immaterial and material instances of the phenomena within his works, he blurs the boundaries between what is painted and what is omitted.  Copley’s experimental paintings draw on the multifaceted nature of the colour, taking inspiration from colour theory, art history and colour science. 

 

Group Exhibitions

(2022) Newcastle Degree Show, Hatton Gallery/Copeland Gallery, Newcastle/London

(2022) XL Exhibition, XL Gallery, Newcastle

(2017) RBA Rising Stars Exhibition, Royal Overseas League, London

(2017) RBA 300th Anniversary Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London

Competitions, Prizes & Awards

(2017) RBA Rising Star

(2017) Highly Commended De Laszlo Medal for Artistic Excellence

(2020) Runner Up for the Gillian Dickinson North East Sculptor of the Year

(2022) VARC Artist in Residence

(2023) Durham University Artist In Residence