New Paintings and Drawings, art exhibition at Anteros Arts Foundation

Norwich-based artist Will Teather (b 1980) will be having a large solo exhibition of new drawings and paintings in the gallery at the Anteros Arts Foundation, as well as opening up his studio as part of Norfolk Open Studios. As resident artist and tutor at the Fye Bridge Street centre, Will is well used to having members of the public visit his street-front studio, or even drop in for a cup of tea and a chat. His exhibition features detailed drawings of some of the local people he  sees every week. But these familiar faces are made characteristically strange and dreamlike through his use of strange angles, unsual perspectives and dramatic foreshortening. There will also be a new series of large-scale paintings depicting impossible scenes, such as Edwardian cyclists balancing on a highwire over Big Ben. Will explains: "In the spirit of magical-realist fiction, the storytelling explores the indefinite space between reality and fiction, horror and humour, fantasy and fact. Vaudevillian characters inhabit a play without beginning or end, where carnival and folk traditions are pastiched together, allowing illusion to work and the improbable to become possible." British artist Will Teather studied at Central St Martins and Chelsea College of Art & Design. He has exhibited at venues including London's Colomb Art Gallery, The Mall Galleries, Gallery No 9 in Marciac, Norwich's Art 18/21 and Oxfordshire's Modern Artists Gallery. He has thrice been a finalist in Mayfair's "Cork Street Open Exhibition" and was shortlisted for the international "Celeste Prize" 2009. Teather's work is held in a number of notable collections in the UK and overseas. He was recently commissioned by Aberdeen Art Gallery and Museums to produce a ceremonial portrait of Peter Stephen, Lord Provost of Aberdeen. The portrait is to mark the end of the Provost's term as a figurehead for the city. The portrait will tell the story of the recent history of the Scottish city through the images that surround the Provost within the portrait. Visitors to the artist's studio will be able to see the development of the commission over the coming months.