Stephen Willats

From the 1960's until today, Stephen Willats has situated his pioneering practice at the intersection between art and other disciplines such as cybernetics, systems research, learning theory, communications theory and computer technology. In so doing, he has constructed and developed a collaborative, interactive and participatory practice grounded in the variables of social relationships and settings. Willats' creates multi-sensory, multi-dimensional environments to encourage viewers to engage with their own creative and cognitive processes. Using the everyday as a site of investigation, his work presents a vehicle of exchange through which viewers can re-examine and transform the way they perceive the fabric of existing reality.

Born in London in 1943, Stephen Willats was one of the very few serious representatives of international Concept Art in England during the sixties and seventies. Solo exhibitions include Assumptions and Presumptions, Art on the Underground, London (2007) From my Mind to Your Mind, Milton Keynes (2007); How the World is and How it could be, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Siegen (2006); Changing Everything, South London Art Gallery, (1998); Meta Filter and Related Works, Tate Gallery London, (1982); 4 Inseln, in Berlin, National Gallery, Berlin, (1980) and Concerning our Present Way of Living, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, (1979). In the 1960's, he founded and edited the magazine Control. From 1972-1973, Willats was Director of the Centre of Behavioural Art, Gallery House, London and from 1979-1980, he was the D.A.A.D. Fellowship artist in West Berlin.

Further Information on Stephen Willats

Exhibitions