About this Event
Welcome to Wunderkammer, an extraordinary exhibition by Will Teather that invites you to step through the "proscenium arch of the picture frame" and into a world where the boundaries between painting, sculpture, and theatre dissolve. Inspired by the historical Wunderkammer (Cabinet of Curiosities), this collection is a modern-day treasure house of the uncanny. It celebrates the human impulse to collect and classify the marvelous, presented through Teather's unique lens of "ontological ambiguity", a space where you may find yourself unsure of what is real, what is artifice, and how exactly the magic was made. The heart of this exhibition lies in Teather’s obsession with the world of illusion, which he builds through layers of trickery and expert skill. Unlike traditional art, some of his work often breaks free from the flat wall. In his Infinite Perspective series, he crafts "strangely orbiting spherical canvases" that depict realistic 360-degree environments. As you walk around these painted globes, the perspective slyly shifts, creating a disorienting sensation of being teleported into a place of magic.
A Master of Artifice Will Teather is often described as a "showman painter" or a "circus master" of the canvas. His work is a rigorous dialogue between traditional virtuosity and contemporary subversion, seamlessly blending the past with the present. His Tudor paintings and portraits of icons like Bowie pull the viewer across different eras, mixing the dramatic lighting of a film set with a rich sense of unease that echoes the Old Masters. While he employs techniques referencing the deep shadows of Caravaggio and the meticulous detail of Flemish still life, he uses these skills to transport us through history, making the distant past feel startlingly present. "I came away with the abiding sensation that I had just been teleported into and out of a place of magic and illusion." Professor Neil Powell on visiting Teather’s studio As you explore the WunderKammer, you are invited to embrace the uncertainty and the "mischievous playfulness" of the work. Whether you are peering into a cinematic landscape or marveling at an impossible perspective, Teather’s goal is to make us see the world differently, offering an extraordinary spectacle that is as clever as it is beautiful.
Teather’s work is deeply rooted in Magical Realism. Like the literature he admires, his paintings play with our belief systems to present "impossible events" with such grounded realism that they feel plausible. Cinematic Influences: His compositions often mirror the "cut and paste" theatrical aesthetic of pioneer director Georges Méliès or the neo-Gothic atmosphere of Tim Burton. Subjects are staged like film sets, bathed in cinematic lighting and surrounded by "theatrical properties and clutter." This theatrical approach turns everyday life into a grand spectacle; for instance, The Age of Panic reimagines the modern drama of consumerism as a high-stakes Baroque masterpiece. Even his Fractal Paintings offer a digital-age trick, using complex geometric lattices to mimic the look of pixels, blurring the line between handmade art and the digital world. The Sacred & The Digital: In his Fractal Paintings, Teather bridges the gap between ancient sacred geometry and modern digital pixelation. These works explore an underlying order in reality, influenced by the automated techniques of Sol LeWitt and the obsessive patterns of outsider artists.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Waran's Fine Art, 304 Fulham Road, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00
