Rachel Williams

PaintingsPrints

14 Jul

My practice is an exploration—always. I don't feel any particular need to continue down one path for years and years. I feel the need always to be making new work, breaking new ground, making something interesting to me, that is exciting to me, that fulfils my need to create things with faith, that everything feeds into everything else.

Rachel Williams’ practice has history and its re-telling at its core. Rooted in and referencing the past but regurgitating constantly into the present, she takes inspiration from prehistoric cave paintings and ancient artefacts held ‘out of context’ in museums.
From drawings and collaged studies, she creates works using a myriad of techniques, including, but not limited to, printmaking, stitching, painting, and collage. By varying her media, one work begets another in an endless chain of interrelated motifs and themes. Almost all of her works have some form of ‘transference’ or printed technique.
The inclusion of embroidery and stitchery in her practice is a link back to the ancient past, the era of the embroidered sampler, and the extraordinary talent of unsung women.
Born in New Zealand, Rachel Williams studied printmaking and Design in Wellington with pre-eminent artist John Drawbridge. After graduating, she emigrated to the UK, where she spent several years running a London design agency. A move to Italy in 2006 launched her full-time artistic career.
After a period of abstraction in rural Italy, a return to the UK in 2017 and a more urban, culturally diverse environment has led to more eclectic subject matter.