From January 27 to March 11, 2023 in our Main Gallery was Moving Through Debris by Austin Clay Willis.
There are two main internal motivators which drive Austin Clay Willis’ art practice. Firstly, he is keenly interested in the bodily relationship to built and architectural environments. Secondly, he is also captivated by the tension between illusory and real space. To these ends Willis creates multimedia, abstract artwork through mediums including (but not limited to) painting, photography, sculpture, and installation. His paintings are primarily concerned with the balance between paint and canvas as physical material, and the notion of painting as a “window” or a representation of real space. The pictorial dimensions of the image oscillate between foreground and background as the combinations of lines, shapes, forms and colours produce illusionary aspects within the picture plane. The material of the painting is foregrounded through texture, drips, finishes, layers, and raw canvas.
In turn, Willis’ sculptures inform his paintings and photographs through material. Then the paintings and photographs are often incorporated back into sculptural installations. These installations relate to the pictorial space, but deal with real environments through material, form, and a conscious attention to the specific rooms they inhabit. Willis creates new structures like walls, ramps, stairs, and platforms to be occupied by the viewer, and bring attention to their physical relationship with space. The materials he uses are the familiar found scraps of dimensional lumber, plywood, discarded sheets of plastic, tarpaulin, textiles, lights, extension cords, and cans of mistinted house paint. Inspiration for his forms comes from a wide array of information, ranging from construction sites, to recycling centres, domestic furniture, DIY-style structures, and even backyard treehouses. In many of Willis’ works, he strives to create dynamic compositions with a charismatic configuration or visual balance.
