Event date: 7 March 2024
Will Teather in his studio
“Art should offer us extraordinary spectacles; art should be alchemy; art should make us see the world differently; art should open conversations.”
Will Teather, Manifesto (excerpt)
Artist, magician, showman, musician. It’s hard to define an artist such as Will Teather, whose intriguing manifesto is a must-read for anyone interested in the creative process.
In a hugely entertaining, whistle stop tour of his career to date, Teather described his early days of art taught at Reepham School to the somewhat unstructured but formative years at Central St Martins and Chelsea College of Art & Design, after which he fully embraced his fascination for magical realism or “ontological ambiguity”, where it is not immediately obvious what is real or unreal.
Teather’s inspiration is firmly anchored in Norfolk’s tradition of carnival, performance and artistic illusion, and its ability to joyfully subvert authority. He combines this with traditional historical subjects and painting techniques, often using motifs from historical sources.
Perspective is key and used as a narrative tool. He says “A lot of my work deals with the carnival-esque and a sense of the uncanny. It’s about creating extraordinary visual spectacles through painting”. The resulting body of work is solely figurative - “I don’t do landscapes” - where Teather uses models often from a performance art background, with whom he builds the pictoral narrative. Here, Paula Rego and Lucien Freud have been sources of inspiration.
“I’ve always enjoyed visual games with artworks, plays upon form, repetition and pattern that are very hard to write about. But they are easy to enjoy”.
Will Teather in his studio
Teather has recently opened a studio in the heart of Tombland which is open to the public each Saturday in March and by appointment after that.
For further information visit www.willteather.com
ncas are grateful to The Norwich School for kindly hosting this event as part of ncas’ talks programme at their excellent Blake Studio.