Zoe Williams' practice incorporates a range of mediums including moving image, ceramics, drawing and performance and is often collaborative in its process and outcome. These elements are combined to create immersive objects and environments, which conjure a playful and corrosive interchange between notions of the erotic, craft, magic, gender, hedonism and excess. Through the cross contamination of these influences, she wishes to provoke conversations around the pressures of power, the politics of sex and the economics of production. Her work explores the shifting use values of objects and rituals through history and within contemporary society. Recently food has played a prevalent role within her practice, as a tool for exchange, disgust, and sensuality.
Zoe Williams has exhibited widely both nationally and internationally and worked with venues including: Tate St Ives, Mimosa House Gallery, London, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, Spike Island, Bristol, DCA Dundee, Glasgow International Festival and the Moscow Biennale for Young Artists.
Zoe Williams (b.1983, Salisbury) lives and works in London. Williams graduated with a Masters of Fine Art from The Glasgow School of Art in 2012. Solo Exhibitions include Solo exhibition, Ciaccia Levi Gallery, Paris, December 2021 (forthcoming); Sunday Fantasy, Mimosa House, London, UK (2019); Ruffles, performative soirée at Riva Tunnel, Monte-Carlo (2019); The Unruly Glove, the Green Bum and the Sickly Trickle, Galerie Antoine Levi, Paris, France (2018); Morsa, Studio Amaro, Naples, Italy (2018); Ceremony of the Void, solo performance commission, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, UK (2017); Châteaux Double Wide series (Chamber Aide), Lightbox commission by Zoe Williams, Project Number, London, UK (2017); Pel, Galerie Antoine Levi, Paris, France (2015); Movements in Love, Galerie Antoine Levi, Paris (2014); You Consume Me, Kunstforeningen GL STRAND, Copenhagen, Denmark (2014); Soft Paste, The Studio Warehouse Gallery, Glasgow, UK (2013); A Skvader, OUTPOST and The Contemporary Arts Society, Norwich Castle, Norwich, UK (2010); The Flight of O, Spike Island, Bristol, UK (2010). Group exhibitions include The Fountain Show II, Sundy Gallery, London, UK (2021) Bathing Nervous Limbs, Arusha Gallery, Edinburgh, UK (2021); CHAPTER 4OUR, Abundance, group exhibition curated by Simon(e) van Saarloos & Vincent Van Velsen, Het HEM, Netherlands (2021); Dreams Made Flesh, group exhibition, Galeria Catinca Tabacaru, Bucharest, Romania (2021) Modern Conversations, Tate St Ives redisplay, St Ives, UK (2021); CERAMICS: The Central Core ‘PART 1’, online at Richard Saltoun Gallery, London, UK (2021); MAATO,Gallery Mcube, Lalitpur, Nepal (2021); Paris International, Ciaccia Levi, Paris, France (2020) ; Clay Scheme Talisman Project, Pool School Gallery, Cornwall, UK (2020); Cater to you, group show, EIGEN + ART Lab, Berlin, Germany (2019); Futures of Love, group show, Magasins Généraux, Pantin, France (2019); Something soft, group show, Kunstraum, London, UK (2019); The Armory Show, with Galerie Antoine Levi, New York, USA (2019); Cookbook 19, group show, La Panacée, Montpellier, France (2019); Playful Aggressions, group show, Greengrassi, London, UK (2019); 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow (2018); Mademoiselle, group exhibition, CRAC OCCITANIE in Sète, (2018); Friends and Neighbours Project, Kunstraum, London, UK (2018) If you Can’t stand the Heat, group exhibition, Roaming Projects, London,
UK (2018); Breaking Shells, group exhibition, The Koppel Project, London, UK (2018); (X)A Fantasy, group exhibition and performance commission, DRAF, London, UK (2017); Performing Objects, weekend event and symposium, Kunstraum, London, UK (2017); Skins, Ellis King, Dublin (2016); Tender Touches, Austrian Cultural Forum, London, UK (2016); Chateaux Double Wide Pop up bar, Union Pacific, London, UK (2016); H Y P E R C O N N E C T E D, curated by João Laia, MMOMA, part of 5th Moscow International Biennale of Young Artists, Moscow (2016); Chateaux Double Wide, Glasgow International 2016, collaborative project with Urara Tsuchiya and others Glasgow (2016); ESPERANTO, group exhibition curated by Cura, Rowing Projects, London (2016); Thirty Shades of White, Group show, Praz Delavallade Gallery, Paris, France (2016); Watch yourself, curated by David Dale Gallery in association with Video Art Network Lagos and UK:NG Festival, Rele, Lagos (2015); Valse Opale, one-night group performative event curated by Vincent Honoré for Paris Internationale, Paris, France (2015) Impossible Love, group show curated Vincent Honoré, Projektraum, Vienna, Austria (2015); Eternal Bronzer, collaborative event project as part of Art Licks Weekend, Penarth Centre, London, UK (2015)The Chic and The Borderline, One-night performative event in collaboration with DRAF (David Roberts Art Foundation) as part of Art international Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey (2015); Outrage, group show, curated by Joel Riff, Cite des arts, Paris, France (2015); COCKTAIL III, Collaborative project with Lucie Akerman, KARST, Plymouth, UK (2014); Mood is Made / Temperature Is Taken, group show curated by Quinn Latimer, The Glasgow Sculpture Studios, Glasgow, UK (2014). Residences and awards include Anchor Studio Residency, Newlyn, Cornwall, UK (2021); Triangle- Gasworks and British Council, Crafting Futures residency, Nepal (2020); Extract II Young International Art Prize, Kunstforeningen GL STRAND, Copenhagen, Denmark (2015); The Rootstein Hopkins Artist Award, Spike Island, Bristol, UK, (2010); UWE Junior fellowship, Spike Island, Bristol, UK (2006).