Nimrod

source: saatchigallery
Bedwyr Williams was born in St Asaph, north Wales in 1974 and spent his formative years in Colwyn Bay. He graduated with a BA in Fine Art from Central St Martins School of Art in 1997 followed by a Dutch equivalent MA from Ateliers, Arnhem Following a period in London he returned to live and work in north Wales, to Rhostryfan near Caernarfon.
He makes and uses videos, photography, performance, drawing, text and the occasional stand up comedy and karaoke. He has created a number of events that are whole environments. Through this broad range of media, a strong sense of surrealistic humour and a sharp critical mind, he explores notions of what it means to be an artist born and currently living and working in north Wales.
He makes work relevant to a sense of place and belonging but simultaneously refuses to be compromised or pigeon-holed by provincial tastes or stereotypes.
He has just been awarded the prestigious Paul Hamlyn Award for Visual Art 2004 and has featured recently in a Guardian article by Adrian Searle in which he identified Bedwyr as one of seven artists in the UK who will be developing an international profile. Recent projects and exhibitions include Operation Ferrule, Ffotogallery, Cardiff; Romantic Detachment, Grizedale Arts/PS1 New York and Tyranny of the Meek, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff..
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source: glasgowinternationalorg
Bedwyr Williams is interested in the absolute worst-case scenarios and the people that get caught up in them – average-sized people in over-sized situations. In Echt, his major new commission for Tramway, Williams presents a full-size diorama of such an encounter in a dark clearing. The immersive installation includes a film depicting a dystopian future in which a fast-track feudal system has left the country divided among new chieftains.
In this new world, where status is based on conspicuous consumption, hoarders are kings. These accumulators of objects and junk have set up their new courts in former dancehalls and nightclubs, and are accompanied by a host of Williams’ acutely observed characters. His curious and fantastical film imagines a future in which an apocalyptic event has forced humanity to reform society, having disregarded previous rules.
Williams won the Paul Hamlyn Award for the Visual Arts in 2005, was shortlisted for the Beck’s Futures prize in 2006 was previously recipient of the Welsh residency at the Venice Biennale. He has exhibited nationally and internationally in solo shows including, ‘Nimrod’, Ceri Hand Gallery, Liverpool, UK (2010), ‘Der Dinghy Koening’, Center, Berlin, Germany (2008). Major group shows include ‘ERNSTE TIERE: PETRIT HALILAJ, (Judith Hopf and Bedwyr Williams)’, Kunstverein Bonn, Germany (2011); ‘Art13‘ London international art fair in March (2013); ‘SHOW’, Jerwood Space, London, UK (2011); ‘Battle in Vain’, Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK (2011); ‘Among the Living‘, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, UK (2007).
Bedwyr Williams (b. 1974) lives and works in Caemarfon, Wales.