Bedwyr Williams is a Welsh artist who has rapidly leapt up in my estimation for his thumbnail sketches of the art world he inhabits, writes Michael Holland.
Bedwyr was at the press viewing of his latest exhibition, Milquetoast, and he doesn’t come across as someone who would be constantly pin-jabbing away at contemporary life and instigating online tiffs. But he also doesn’t look like a man who suffers fools gladly. However, he gets away with daily Instagram bites at his world because his art and wit combined are beautiful pieces of work.
For 20 years Williams has been creating art but in recent years he has been using Instagram to show his work, and even more so during the pandemic. He said his number of followers doubled over the lockdowns, with the New York Times also climbing aboard as a fan.
But iPad drawings online are far from the only medium the artist uses, citing sculpture, video, drawing and even stand-up as ways to get his message across. Most of which can be found in Milquetoast, his exhibition spread over the two Southwark Park Galleries sites.
The Lake gallery focuses on his iPad drawings, screened on a loop, while display cases showcase his sketchbook satire, drawn from his lived experience. They hilariously hit home.
In Dilston Gallery, the artist has created a street of imagined buildings that follows his own thoughts of art galleries being ‘these buildings that are often funny shapes or appear to teeter or lean but still have toilets and dustbins…’
There, too, is Militia, a gorgeous animation voiced-over by Williams’ soft Welsh lilt, so deadpan as to make the viewer unsure if the comedy created in the words is deliberate or naïve. Trust me, it is meant, and all the funnier for it.
Militia tells of protestors occupying an art gallery after entering through the gift shop, with the staff, safely ensconced behind invisible flush frame doors watching proceedings via CCTV. And the drawings are spectacular. The gallery director and her assistant are nailed to the backdrop of their lives perfectly from the knees down: the length of the trouser, the Birkenstock sandal, the edge of an ankle tattoo. And the words, oh the words, delivered by Bedwyr are just sublime.
Southwark Park Galleries, Southwark Park, SE16 until 11th July. Admission: Free.