NATURE/HUMAN/NATURE – PHIL ASTON WILLIAMS

Sydney artist Phil Aston Williams creates unique and vibrant painted works using collage to combine figurative and abstract elements.

Williams’ work fractures conventional ways of using elements of play, kitsch and psychedelia. His new collection explores historical found images and machismo gestural markings, which are refracted and distorted through diamond-shaped lenses.

“I like the concept of collage for a number of reasons. It sort of breaks with the general narrative because you’re reconfiguring things. It’s accessible and open for whoever is interested,” says Williams.

Williams has completed residencies all over the world and his work is held in various private and public collections. His residency at Hafnarfjordur, Iceland in 2009 gave him the inspiration for some current works that feature human hands emerging from thick swirls of paint in a variety of forms.

Williams’ new collection is both pleasing to the eye and invites the viewer to question their own way of seeing and responding to contemporary art. (MH)

Until Aug 25, Salerno Gallery, 70 Glebe Point Road, Glebe, Free, (02) 9660 0899, salernogallery.com