Mark Moore Gallery is pleased to present new work by British painter Simon Willems.
Recently featured in the January 2006 edition of ArtReview’s “100 Future Greats,” Willems has been selected by a prestigious team of curators, critics and established artists as a top emerging artist on the cusp of international success.
In his new body of work, Willems focuses his attention on abandoned theme parks, playgrounds and fun-fair attractions. Willems considers these subjects to “confirm an iconography premised by signifiers of contemporary abandon and cultural escapism,” in which the playground and theme park are a metaphor of a contemporary culture consumed by expedient solutions and idiosyncratic remedies. Poised within a visual dichotomy of abstract gesture and heightened realism, Willems paintings oscillate between everyday reality and strategies for escape and denial.
Graduating from the Royal College of Art in London in 2000, Willems’ recent exhibitions have included solo shows at Galerie-Polaris in Paris, Wallspace Gallery in New York, and the Percymiller Gallery in London.