Biography
William Tiller is a celebrate painter and watercolourist whose work has been shown frequently in London and New York since the 1970s. Tillyer was born in Middlesbrough and studied painting at Middlesbrough College of Art. He then went on to study at London’s Slade School of Fine Art. He began to make radically experimental work, which raised questions about the relationship of art to the world, and of man to nature. The 1970s saw Tillyer return to printmaking with renewed vigour, using a variety of techniques – from etching to five-tone screenprinting – to create lattices that Pat Gilmour described as ‘a cool and unpeopled world…in which to reflect the surrounding flux of nature’.
Tillyer’s approach to painting is constantly evolving. His work redefines and reinterprets classic subject matter, like landscapes, still lifes, and portraits, in methods that challenge historical traditions and vary between bodies of work. During a time in which Tillyer believes art is too often a projection of the artist, he attempts to initiate instead a dialogue between elements of paint, surface, and subject. His “Helmsley Sky Studies”, for example, are based a cloud series by 19th-century Romantic painter John Constable. Unlike the originals, which Constable controlled solely by oil paint and precise brushwork, Tillyer incorporates grids of metal lattice; as the paint conforms to the wire mesh, the focus is shared by subject and materials, thus separating it from the confines of the traditional landscape.
Tillyer has been invited to work internationally in locations including Cadiz, Spain; Tobago, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago; Count Kerry, Ireland for the Cill Rialaig Project; and Melbourne, Australia. Tillyer has served as a visiting professor at Brown University in the United States, the Bath Academy of Art, and the Chelsea School of Art. Tillyer has exhibited internationally, and his work can be found in the collections of major institutions including the Brooklyn Museum and Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Art Gallery of Western Australia in Perth; the Arts Council Collection; the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art; and Tate and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023 The Mulgrave Tensile Wire Works, Bernard Jacobson Gallery, London
2022 Still Life, Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
2021 The Mulgrave Tensile Wire Works and The Mulgrave Wire Scrolls, Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
2020 Watercolours, Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
2019 Zephyr, New prints by William Tillyer, Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
2018 Frieze Masters 2018 – Booth Private, Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
2018 The Golden Striker and Esk Paintings, Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
2018 Nobody : William Tillyer and Alice Oswald, Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
2018 À Rebours, Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
2018 Radical Vision, , Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
2017 Prints, Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
2017 The Wildenstein Hermitage and other paintings, Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
2013 The Watering Place, Bernard Jaconson Gallery, London
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Mixed Show, Bernard Jacobson Gallery
2022 Object / Subject: The Art of Still Life, Bernard Jacobson Gallery
2021 Bruce McLean, William Tillyer, Marc Vaux, Bernard Jacobson Gallery
2020 The 70s | Explosion of Colours, Bernard Jacobson Gallery
2020 Spring Mixed Show, Bernard Jacobson Gallery
2020 The Armory Show 2020 | PRIVATE, Bernard Jacobson Gallery
2019 Frieze Masters – SECRET, Bernard Jacobson Gallery
2019 Basel 2019 – PRIVATE, Bernard Jacobson Gallery
2019 Duality, Mixografia
2019 Draw Art Fair 2019, Bernard Jacobson Gallery