Abstract Armature: Simon McWilliams

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Simon McWilliams

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This catalogue was published on the
occasion of the exhibition
Simon McWilliams
Abstract Armature
at The Naughton Gallery at Queen’s
11th April - 18th May 2014
Design: Darragh Neely
ISBN 978-1-909131-21-7
2014 All photos © Simon McWilliams except
Back cover and portrait of the artist © Robin Cordiner
Simon McWilliams
Born in Belfast in 1970, Simon McWilliams was educated at
the Royal Academy Schools in London and the University of
Ulster in Belfast, specialising in painting. For more than 20
years Simon has proven himself to have a unique painterly
voice. He gathered accolades and awards in the USA, UK
and Ireland; most notably the Guinness Award at the Royal
Academy Summer Exhibition, London; a Major Award
from the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, and Perpetual
Gold and Silver Medals from the Royal Ulster Academy.
Simon lives in Belfast with his wife and daughter.
www.simonmcwilliams.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may
be produced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, without
the permission of the artist, authors or publisher.
The Naughton Gallery at Queen’s
Lanyon Building
Queen’s University Belfast
BT7 1NN
Telephone: +44 (0)28 9097 3580
Email: art@qub.ac.uk
www.naughtongallery.org
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Simon McWilliams: Abstract Armature
“All architecture
is what you do
to it when you
look upon it,
(Did you think it
was in the white
or gray stone?
or the lines of
the arches and
cornices?)”
Walt Whitman
from A Song for Occupations
Armature was originally a term of sculpture and
architecture, denoting a physical framework stabilizing
an object during fabrication. Later, it was used as an
interpretive analogy in Cubism to describe the underlying
organizational skeleton on which elements of quasiabstraction
could be hung to keep the image together. In
the vibrant, densely built, spatially complex paintings of
Simon McWilliams, armature fulfills the pictorial aspect of
its meaning -- and takes a lead role in the content of the
images. His aesthetic affinity for the dynamic ambiguity of
construction sites frequently leads McWilliams to depict
actual architectural scaffolding in his compositions, as well
as sparked a love for the fragile, elegant dissonance and
unlikely climate of classic greenhouses. Not entirely ready
to submit to the desires of pure pigment, it’s no wonder
McWilliams is attracted to real places with unreal qualities.
He loves the way construction zones exist at the
coincidence of creation and destruction -- the colorful
flapping tarps, stark lights, clouds of dust, contortions
of space and perspective, the eliding of geometry and
weather. In turn, the presence of these and other artifacts
of the familiar world hold together compositions that might
otherwise threaten to dissolve into abstraction. McWilliams
is keenly aware of this threat, and he is forever shoring
up against it. “I’m going for a more ambivalent surface,
for a formalism that is fundamentally abstract despite my
ineffable need for a scaffold of realism to hang it on. A
builder using a cement cutter might give me an excuse to
compose an abstract shape and play around with smoky
textures and sparkling light. Sometimes I feel the builders
help me solve a composition -- but at the same time, the
paintings grow in ways I hadn’t planned.”
When it comes to McWilliams’ periodical return to the
subject of palm-houses, there are significant formal and
analogical correspondences. In the use of lines, the energy
of the hurried geometry, and the evocative deployment
of paint, one sees echoed the same strategies he used to
replicate atmospheric effects of industrial construction --
here used to both depict and replicate the florid fractals that
undergird organic botany. His determination forms through
brush and brushless work isn’t just pictorial, it’s sculptural
and dimensional. And it’s worth remarking how the
hypersaturated interior fog of the hothouses is not unlike
the dust of a construction site. In a marvellous bit of fate,
this exhibition is being held at a gallery inside the Queens
University in Belfast, which was designed by Charles Lanyon,
and next door to the University is a curvilinear palm-house
which he also designed. it is the exact palmhouse which
McWIlliams has been painting. Unsurprisingly, it was the
combination of architecture and exotic atmospherics that
also attracted him there.
This quality is reminiscent of JMW Turner’ works of majestic
ambiguity like Rain, Steam, and Speed. Having the impulse
to paint abstractly yet lacking the language to support it,
Turner instead sought out places, things, and phenomena
that already looked abstract and painted those. Even the
organic elements McWilliams chooses are cultivated, artificial
natures -- living but not ordinarily occurring, designed
recreations within the urban context. McWilliams, like Turner
deploys abstraction as an inherent quality of the postindustrial
epoch. Looking at cement, rebar, polyurethane,
and debris, using paint and saturated color to understand;
melding natural, industrial, and emotional phenomena into a
singular expressive construct; and prompting our attention
not only to what we see, but to how we see it.
Shana Nys Dambrot
Los Angeles, March 2014
Shana Nys Dambrot is an art critic, curator, and author
based in Los Angeles. She is currently LA Editor for WhiteHot
Magazine, Arts Editor for Vs. Magazine, Contributing Editor
to Art Ltd., and a contributor to the LA Weekly, Flaunt,
Huffington Post, Scene, and KCET’s Artbound. She studied
Art History at Vassar College, and besides contributing to
various magazines, she is a writer of not only books but also
exhibition catalogues. She curates one or two exhibitions a
year and speaks in public with alarming frequency.
Her work is archived (mostly) at sndx.net.
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Red Model
oil on linen
153cm x 123cm
2014
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Cathedral
oil on canvas
108cm x 130cm
2010 - 2013
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M-Machine
oil on linen
80cm x 60cm
2010
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Welder and Smoke
oil on linen
80cm x 60cm
2010 - 2014
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Building Babel
oil on canvas
195cm x 213cm
2010
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Yellow Shuttering
oil on canvas
90cm x 76cm
2010 - 2013
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Smoke and Ladders
oil on linen
152cm x 182cm
2012 - 2014
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Red Ark with Steam
oil on canvas
163cm x 173cm
2010
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New Tower of Babel
oil on canvas
72cm x 60cm
2010
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Palmhouse
oil on canvas
172cm x 165cm
2007 - 2013
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Obelisk
oil on canvas
150cm x 100cm
2010 - 2014
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Open Night
oil on linen
153cm x 123cm
2014
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Belfast Palmhouse II
oil on canvas
152cm x 182cm
2013
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Restoration Dust
oil on linen
152cm x 182cm
2012 – 2014
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Metropolis, Shanghai 2014
oil on canvas
250cm x 197cm
2013
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Simon McWilliams CV
Education
1995-98 the Royal Academy Schools, London
1982-92 BA (Hons) Fine Art University of Ulster
1988-89 Art & Design, University of Ulster
Solo Exhibition
2014 Naughton Gallery, Belfast.
2014 Belfast Print Workshop, solo show of original prints
2012 Skotia Gallery, Los Angeles
2010 Skotia Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
2006 John Martin Gallery, London
2001 Art Space Gallery, Michael Richardson Contemporary Art,
London
2000 Solomon Gallery, Dublin
1995, 1993 Cavehill Gallery, Belfast
Group Shows:
2013 VUE: National Contemporary Art Fair, RHA in Dublin
2013-1993 Royal Ulster Academy Annual Exhibitions
2013 Peppercanister Gallery, Dublin
2012, 2009 2007 2002 Royal Hibernian Academy,
Annual Exhibitions Dublin
2013-1993 Cavehill Gallery group shows, Belfast
2012 N.I. Printmakers, Lessedra Gallery ,Sofia, Bulgaria
2012 Factory Place Open Studios, Los Angeles, California
2012 Sea of Exchange: Ireland - Los Angeles. LA Print Space,
Los Angeles Irish Film Festival.
2012 Veneris XIII, Skotia Gallery, California
2012 Rebecca Hossack Gallery, London
2011 Contemporary Art in Northern Ireland, The Arts Council NI,
Stormont Castle
2011 Skotia Gallery Group Show, LA
2011 Skotia Gallery, Los Angeles Art Fair, LA
2010 Crow Moon Grand Re-Opening, Skotia Gallery, Santa Fe.
2009,2008, 2006 Boyle Arts Festival, Roscommon
2009 The Ava Gallery, The World in Black and White
2009 Ava Gallery, New Year Works
2008, 2007, 2006 Wexford Festival, Exhibition, hosted by Joan Lambert
2008 The Invisible Collection, Ava Gallery
2008 Inishlacken: A Place Apart, Galway Arts Centre and touring
2007, 2006, 2004 Fenton Gallery,Cork
2007 The UTV collection: A Fresh Look, Highlanes Gallery
2007 Double Elephant, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast
2007 Modern & Contemporary Irish Art, Sothebys London
2007 New Art from Northern Ireland. Katzen Arts Center,
Washington, USA
2007 Recent Acquisitions, Queens University Collection,
Naughton Gallery Belfast
2007 Glasgow Art Fair
2006 The Discerning Eye, The Mall Galleries, London
2006 Sothebys Post War and Contemporary Irish Art, RHA Dublin &
Sothebys, Bond Street, London
2006 “Reflections” Joint Government Exhibition, Touring
2006 “Collectors Collections” Ormeau Baths Gallery Belfast
2005, 2006, 2001 Solomon Gallery, Dublin
2005,2004, 1999 Invited Artist, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
2004, 2003, 1999 The Hunting Art Prizes, Royal College of Art, London
2003 Lexmark European Art Prize Finalists exhibition
2001 AIB art collection at the Ulster Museum
1999 Klinginmuseum, “Light in Art”, Solingen, Germany
1999 Art Space Gallery, “Four young Painters”, London
1999 Long & Ryle Gallery. London
1999 The Royal Overseas League, London
1998 Royal Academy Schools, London
1998 Cadogan Contemporary Gallery, London
1997 Sackler Galleries, Premiums exhibition Royal Academy of Arts,
London
1997 National Print Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London
1997, 96 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts , London
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Grants/Awards
2013 INPA International Painting Annual V3, Finalist,
Manifest Gallery, Ohio
2013 Arts Council of NI, SIAP award
2012 Culture Ireland Grant
2012 British Council
2012, (10, 01, 00, 99, 94, 93) Arts Council of NI Visual Arts Bursaries
2010 Irish News Award, Royal Ulster Academy
2009 Academy Award, Royal Ulster Academy
2009 Gold Medal, Royal Ulster Academy
2009 Fringe Mk Annual painting prize finalist
2007 Celeste Art Prize Shortlisted Artist
2006 Discerning Eye London, Regional Prize
2006 Elected Royal Ulster Academician
2005 Mills Selig Award, Royal Ulster Academy
2002 Major individual award, Arts Council of Northern Ireland
1999 Silver Medal, Royal Ulster Academy
1999 Abbey Stained Glass Studio Award,
Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
1999 Hunting Art Prizes, Gallery Award, London
1998 Arts Council of Ireland, Equipment Grant
1998 Elizabeth Fitzpatrick Bursary, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin
1998 Nicholas & Andre Tooth Travel Award, Royal Academy, London
1998 Gilchrist Fisher Award, London
1997 British Institute award for painting, London
1997 John Crompton award Royal Academy, London
1996 The Guinness Award, Sponsors Prize, Royal Academy Summer
show, London
1996 “Belfast ‘91” Award
1994 Northern Ireland Arts Club Award
1992 Belfast Young Contemporaries, prize-winner,
One Oxford Street Gallery
1992 Thomas Dammann Junior Travel Award, Arts Council of NI
Collections
The Ulster Museum, Belfast
Queens University Belfast
University of Ulster Permanent collection
Boyle Civic collection, Roscommon
Northern Ireland civil service/ Government Art Collection
Office of Public Works, Ireland
Department of Finance, Northern Ireland
Arts Council of Northern Ireland
Allied Irish Banks (Dublin)
Bank of Ireland
Permanent TSB (Dublin)
Guinness PLC (London)
Centrum Kunstlicht in de Kunst (Eindhoven)
Construction Employers Federation NI
National Self-portrait collection of Ireland, Limerick
Ulster Television PLC, Belfast
The Haverty Trust, Ireland
UNISON for Northern Ireland
AXA Insurance
The Mater Hospital
Brian O Halloran & Associates
Robinson McIlwaine Architects
Brian 0 Donnell & Partners, Dublin
Parker Green International
McCann Fitzgerald Solicitors, Dublin
The Bar Library, Belfast
Environmental Protection Agency, Ireland
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