Stephen Willats (1943, London) is a British artist, who lives and works in London. Since the early 1960s he has created works concerned with extending the territory in which art functions, while leading a critical examination of environments shaped by contemporary life.
Willats is one of the forerunners of conceptual art in Europe, embracing interdisciplinary processes and theory from sociology, systems, analysis, cybernetics, computer technology, semiotics and philosophy, in the furtherance of the element of interactivity which continues to be one of the key drivers in his work.
Willats is one of the forerunners of conceptual art in Europe, embracing interdisciplinary processes and theory from sociology, systems, analysis, cybernetics, computer technology, semiotics and philosophy, in the furtherance of the element of interactivity which continues to be one of the key drivers in his work.
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Artworks by Stephen Willats
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Stephen Willats Discusses his solo show at Modern Art Oxford
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Stephen Willats is an international figure in contemporary art; he has worked in the Netherlands since the 1970’s where his work is represented in several public collections, it has been exhibited in the Van Abbe Museum Eindhoven, De Gemeente Museum den Haag, Breda, Venlo etc. Most recently his work was seen in "Becoming Dutch" in the Van Abbe Museum. Upcoming shows include a significant retrospective that the Migros Museum in Zurich will host in May 2019.
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BIOGRAPHY
1943 Born in London.
Lives and works in London
EDUCATION
1962-63 ‘The Ground Course’, Ealing School of Art
1965 to date Editor and publisher of Control Magazine
1972-73 Director of ‘The Centre for Behavioural Art’, London
1979-80 D.A.A.D. Fellowship, West Berlin
1990 Convenor of the Symposium, ‘Art Creating Society’, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1991 Stephen Willats - Printed Archive’ established at the Victoria and Albert Museum
2003 Convenor of the Seminars ‘Art Intervention’, Control Magazine at Vilma Gold, London
2006 Multiple Clothing’ seminar and performance at Tate Modern, London
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008 Stephen Willats, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany
2007 Assumptions and Presumptions, Art on the Underground
2007 Person to Person People to People, Milton Keynes Gallery
2006 Going Home, (An Exhibition in 3 Chapters), MOT Gallery, London
2006 How the World is and How it could be, Museum fur
Gegenswartkunst Siegen, September – January 2006
2006 From My Mind To Your Mind, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
2006 Publishing Interventions, Connor Donlon Books, Herald St Gallery, London
2005 Stephen Willats – Street Talk Amsterdam, Lumen Ttravo, Amsterdam
2005 Kritische Gesellschaften, Badischer Kunstverein, Karslruhe
2005 Multichannel Life, Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne
2005 Street Talk Amsterdam, Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam
2004 Messages from the Polemical City, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin
2004 Engagierte Kunst, Neues Museum, Nurnberg
2003 Personal Encounters in Your Imagination, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart
2002 Cognitive Control, Institute of Visual Culture, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
2002 Through Your Symbolic World, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
2000 Macro To Micro, Gallery Laure Genillard, London
1999 Multichannel Vision, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart
1998 Random Encounter, Southampton City Art Gallery
1998 Changing Everything, South London Art Gallery
1998 Creative Force, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield
1998 Concepts, Strategies & Models 1962 - 65, Gimpel Fils, London
1997 Street Talk, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
1997 Between Me And You, Middlesbrough Art Gallery
1997 MULTICULT, Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam
1995 Living Together, Tramway, Glasgow
1995 A State Of Agreement, Galerie Franck & Schulte, Berlin
1994 Random Life, Victoria Miro Gallery, London STEPHEN WILLATS 1994 Museum Mosaic, Tate
Gallery, Liverpool
1994 Fateful Combinations, The British School at Rome
1994 Into the Infra-Structure, Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam
1993 Buildings & People, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
1993 Multiple Clothing, Institute of Contemporary Art, London
1991 Publishing Interventions, 1963 - 1991, National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
1990 Mosaics, Galerie Kaj Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
1989 Secret Language, Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester
1988 Transformers, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
1987 Contemporary Living, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent
1987 Between Objects And People, Leeds City Art Gallery
1986 City of Concrete, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
1986 Grusse vom Medernen Lebe, Stadtische Galerie, Regensburg, West Germany
1996 Groeten uit het moderne leven, Museum van Hedenaagse Kunst, Utrecht, Holland
1996 Concepts and Models, ICA, London
1996 Vier Hiizen in Den Haag, Haags Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, Holland
1996 Striking Back, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield
1984 Another City, Riverside Studios, London
1983 Inside The Night, Lisson Gallery, London
1982 Meta Filter and Related Works, Tate Gallery, London
1980 The Lurky Place, Galerie Jurgen Schweinebraden, East Berlin
1980 Four Professionals, Lisson Gallery, London
1980 Concerning Our Present Way of Living, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
1980 4 Inseln in Berlin, National Galerie, West Berlin
1979 Concerning Our Present Way of Living, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1978 Questions About Ourselves, Lisson Gallery, London
1978 Living Within Contained Conditions, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1977 Attitudes Within Four Relationships, Southampton City Art Gallery
1976 Life Codes And Behaviour Parameters, The Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham
1976 Attitudes Within Four Relationships, Lisson Gallery, London
1975 Meta Filter, A State Of Agreement, The Gallery, London
1973 The Artist As An Instigator Of Changes in Social Cognition and Behaviour, Gallery House, London
1968 Visual Automatics & Visual Transmitters, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1943 Born in London.
Lives and works in London
EDUCATION
1962-63 ‘The Ground Course’, Ealing School of Art
1965 to date Editor and publisher of Control Magazine
1972-73 Director of ‘The Centre for Behavioural Art’, London
1979-80 D.A.A.D. Fellowship, West Berlin
1990 Convenor of the Symposium, ‘Art Creating Society’, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1991 Stephen Willats - Printed Archive’ established at the Victoria and Albert Museum
2003 Convenor of the Seminars ‘Art Intervention’, Control Magazine at Vilma Gold, London
2006 Multiple Clothing’ seminar and performance at Tate Modern, London
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008 Stephen Willats, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany
2007 Assumptions and Presumptions, Art on the Underground
2007 Person to Person People to People, Milton Keynes Gallery
2006 Going Home, (An Exhibition in 3 Chapters), MOT Gallery, London
2006 How the World is and How it could be, Museum fur
Gegenswartkunst Siegen, September – January 2006
2006 From My Mind To Your Mind, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
2006 Publishing Interventions, Connor Donlon Books, Herald St Gallery, London
2005 Stephen Willats – Street Talk Amsterdam, Lumen Ttravo, Amsterdam
2005 Kritische Gesellschaften, Badischer Kunstverein, Karslruhe
2005 Multichannel Life, Galerie Christian Nagel, Cologne
2005 Street Talk Amsterdam, Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam
2004 Messages from the Polemical City, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin
2004 Engagierte Kunst, Neues Museum, Nurnberg
2003 Personal Encounters in Your Imagination, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart
2002 Cognitive Control, Institute of Visual Culture, Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
2002 Through Your Symbolic World, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
2000 Macro To Micro, Gallery Laure Genillard, London
1999 Multichannel Vision, Galerie Reinhard Hauff, Stuttgart
1998 Random Encounter, Southampton City Art Gallery
1998 Changing Everything, South London Art Gallery
1998 Creative Force, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield
1998 Concepts, Strategies & Models 1962 - 65, Gimpel Fils, London
1997 Street Talk, Victoria Miro Gallery, London
1997 Between Me And You, Middlesbrough Art Gallery
1997 MULTICULT, Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam
1995 Living Together, Tramway, Glasgow
1995 A State Of Agreement, Galerie Franck & Schulte, Berlin
1994 Random Life, Victoria Miro Gallery, London STEPHEN WILLATS 1994 Museum Mosaic, Tate
Gallery, Liverpool
1994 Fateful Combinations, The British School at Rome
1994 Into the Infra-Structure, Galerie Lumen Travo, Amsterdam
1993 Buildings & People, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
1993 Multiple Clothing, Institute of Contemporary Art, London
1991 Publishing Interventions, 1963 - 1991, National Art Library, Victoria & Albert Museum, London
1990 Mosaics, Galerie Kaj Forsblom, Helsinki, Finland
1989 Secret Language, Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester
1988 Transformers, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle
1987 Contemporary Living, Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Gent
1987 Between Objects And People, Leeds City Art Gallery
1986 City of Concrete, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham
1986 Grusse vom Medernen Lebe, Stadtische Galerie, Regensburg, West Germany
1996 Groeten uit het moderne leven, Museum van Hedenaagse Kunst, Utrecht, Holland
1996 Concepts and Models, ICA, London
1996 Vier Hiizen in Den Haag, Haags Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, Holland
1996 Striking Back, Mappin Art Gallery, Sheffield
1984 Another City, Riverside Studios, London
1983 Inside The Night, Lisson Gallery, London
1982 Meta Filter and Related Works, Tate Gallery, London
1980 The Lurky Place, Galerie Jurgen Schweinebraden, East Berlin
1980 Four Professionals, Lisson Gallery, London
1980 Concerning Our Present Way of Living, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven
1980 4 Inseln in Berlin, National Galerie, West Berlin
1979 Concerning Our Present Way of Living, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London
1978 Questions About Ourselves, Lisson Gallery, London
1978 Living Within Contained Conditions, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
1977 Attitudes Within Four Relationships, Southampton City Art Gallery
1976 Life Codes And Behaviour Parameters, The Midland Group Gallery, Nottingham
1976 Attitudes Within Four Relationships, Lisson Gallery, London
1975 Meta Filter, A State Of Agreement, The Gallery, London
1973 The Artist As An Instigator Of Changes in Social Cognition and Behaviour, Gallery House, London
1968 Visual Automatics & Visual Transmitters, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford
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