About
Cross section is an exhibition of paintings and mixed media works by Michael J. Williams who's work explores the connections between architecture, landscape and socio historical contexts. Michael has lived and worked in North Norfolk for 18 years. Prior to that he lived and worked in London teaching Fine Art across a number of Colleges and Universities. Most recently he has been Lead Tutor on Anglia Ruskin Universities Yr 3 BA Hons Fine Art Course.
The work included in the exhibition at Cromer Artspace represents a bringing together of ideas generated by the architecture of the wartime bunkers and pillboxes that litter the North Norfolk Coast, and a particular set of buildings on Berlin Wannsee, a place the artist has visited many times. The Wannsee Strandbad was built in the years immediately preceding WWII and for a time served as a leisure resort for Berliners and high-ranking members of the National Socialist Party. Across the lake from these buildings stands the house in which the Nazi Command plotted the 'Final Solution'. This combination of dark history modern re-inventions and intriguing architecture has been the catalyst for a series of paintings that have slowly merged with the artist's earlier bunker and pillbox studies.
The paintings in this exhibition explore meanings and context through Modernist and Postmodernist approaches to painting. The buildings and the history they imbue act as potent subject matter for the artist's visual exploration.
