Jeffrey Paul's entry into the
2019 Raw Vision short film competition
Terry Williams’ career spans three decades and reflects a diverse exploration of materials and techniques. He is best known for his soft sculpture; a technique popularised in the 1960s by artists such as Claes Oldenburg and Yayoi Kusama.
Williams’ sculptural work is defined by his deft and obsessive interpretation of figures, animals and objects, both real and imagined. The tactile, pillow-like works constructed with found materials feature exaggerated, conspicuous stitching and are intensely physical and bulging in their form.
Williams does not consciously work within common traditions of art but instead adopts an immersive and idiosyncratic process, ruminating on and storing ideas until they manifest into complex and multi-faceted creations.
Terry Williams has worked at the Arts Project Australia studio program since 1989. He has had a number of solo exhibitions including a solo exhibition curated by Ricky Swallow at White Columns, New York (2015). He was a finalist in the Victorian Craft Award (2015 & 2017), Melbourne and the Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize (2011).
He has been included in numerous group exhibitions including Everyday imagining: new perspectives on Outsider art, Ian Potter Museum of Art, The University of Melbourne (2014); The Soft Knife, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Casula (2014), Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne (1995–2014) Renegades: Outsider Art, National touring exhibition (2013–2014); Pearls of Arts Project Australia: The Stuart Purves Collection, National Touring exhibition (2007–2009); and The Museum of Everything, Museum of Old and New Art (MONA), Tasmania. His work is held in private collections throughout Australia and internationally.
