Featured Artist Simon Williams

UK-based artist Simon Williams founded the artistic lab Jakbox, which produces innovative work with an urban aesthetic and art world commentary. Learn more by visiting his website.

“Pavement #3” silicone on aluminium, 80 x 100 cm

Through JakBox, I have developed an art practice with a process-led approach, based on concepts inspired by my personal history. There are three main ideas that anchor it; the first is the experience of seeing, the second is a concern with the process of time and the effect that time has had on the material, and the third is an investigation and commentary on what it means to be a 21^st century artist operating in the commercial art world.

“Metal #9” patina on copper, 30 x 35 cm

Through my own emotional experience, I would like to draw people’s attention to the world that surrounds us. For the majority of my life this environment has been London. I have lived and worked in many corners of it and learnt to find much beauty in its streets. It is this beauty that I seek to highlight in works such as Pavement, attempting to encourage viewers to get as much pleasure from looking at real life as from great works of art.

“Pavement #2” silicone on aluminium, 70 x 100 cm

I want people to experience a new way of seeing, and I attempt to shift your visual hierarchy by enhancing textures and objects normally discarded or overlooked. In JakBox’s work there is a call to play with your perception of the world. I push viewers to reappraise what they consider worthy of attention and thought. Objects around us are powerful. From the Marking Time works to the Foils series, you can see that even the most seemingly banal objects or environments contain marks of history and memories. I truly think material has meaning.

“Camden Road #5” matte black wrap cinefoil, 61 x 61 cm

Also, I would like to evoke the beauty of passing time and life experience in people’s minds. I am fascinated with the aesthetics of the process of time. My interest in decayed textures and purposefully eroded materials also stems from my own reflections about our limited material existence that can be seen in my early works.  

“Graffiti Theft” spray paint transfer on cotton, 10 x 196 cm

Finally, I use my art to share my feelings, to comment on the art market and its logics, and on what it means to be an artist in the commercial art world. What it means to make art that, by necessity, must be sold and therefore judged by the buyer, and how this can impact the artist’s emotion and practice.

“Sediment #6” graphite on paper, 50 x 50 cm

These main ideas are completed by other themes; serendipity, newness, the urban, London… I am not stuck on one subject/media. JakBox’s work is often initiated from a raw feeling or thought, but every work leads me to new places and new pieces, each informing the next. In this process I find the most creativity, emotion and newness.

Simon Williams invites you to follow Jakbox on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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