Jed Williams

 

   Most of my artist life I have focused on the dreamlike zone between abstract formalism and iconography, with a surreal touch. Objects and schematically depicted figures whirled around almost absurdly. works on his images in different kinds of media: oil paint, acrylic, mixed media; my art stems from a wish to blend a more formalist, expressionistic abstract tradition with a conceptual quest nourished by his interest in the human figure, pop and mythological culture, and different forms of spirituality, along with a dose of whimsy and street art.

 

   Recently, though because of the sadness and isolation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, I have come back to incorporate realism, landscape and the nude figure in a round about, whimsical way. The whimsy however is a counterpart, or perhaps maybe a coping tool and a counterbalance to our “new” absurd pandemic-lockdown reality. My influences include the gestural and psychological ambivalence of the German expressionists, and the willfully thick paint handling of Soutine but also influenced by the graphic design-related visual cheekiness and panache of Philadelphia street artists such as Adam Crawford as well as the post-surreal collage like aesthetic of NOSEGO.

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