Isaac Willis (b. 1991, Walton-On-Thames, UK) is currently based in Glasgow, studying for his Masters in Fine Art at the Glasgow School of Art. He received his BA in Fine Art from the University for the Creative Arts in 2014.
His work uses historical paintings as subject matter for new investigations into contemporary painting. Willis questions topics of ownership, the narrative of women in historical art, heritage, power, and materiality. Crops of old master paintings are juxtaposed with a material surface which draws attention to itself, exposing the material and objecthood of painting. These surfaces, often aluminium, are accompanied by sculptural mounts, such as a crow’s head or a chess piece, which bear the works. Thinking through images and translating the ‘mind's eye’ is a starting point for the paintings which contain different sources of imagery wrestling for space in the picture plane.
Recent group exhibitions include; ‘Popcorn Machine’, 318 Langside, Glasgow (2024); ‘Ghost Image’, Mannering Road, Glasgow (2024); ‘Resting’, Blyth Gallery at Imperial College, London (2023); ‘Words and Pictures’, Worlding Project Space, London (2023); ‘Inside Job’, Tate Modern, London (2018).