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Sam Wills​​

(b. Sutton, 1997)

Artist Statement 

My practice explores the political and poetic potential of unannounced encounters within the everyday. Working across public space, bureaucratic and legal structures, and embodied gestures, my work engages with themes such as colonial memory, the co-option of art within acts of privatisation, and alternative forms of memorialisation.

As physical and immaterial interventions with an emphasis on site-specificity, my projects reveal themselves (sometimes very slowly) within existing systems and networks. Using a vernacular language as a medium, objects such as birdboxes, beer bottles, and lime bikes become vehicles of whimsy, critical exchange, and direct action. For example, a series of public sculptures as birdboxes for red-listed birds are installed with the intention of infiltrating and disrupting future planning applications for luxury developments. Or, in 2024 I legally changed my name to re-remember and correct a generational family myth tied to British imperial memory. In each case, the work camouflages itself within unexpected, often non-art contexts, hoping to present itself in serendipitous everyday situations.

Education​

Goldsmiths, University of London (Art and Politics MA, 2023- 2025)

Chelsea College Of Art (BA Fine Art, First Class Honours, 2016-2019) 

Camberwell College Of Art (Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, 2015-2016) 

Public Commission

2023 - 2024 Desire Paths, Public Realm, commissioned by Turf Projects, Croydon, UK

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Shortlisted 

2024 Bloomberg New Contemporaries

2024 Minus20degrees, Flachau, Austria

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Selected Exhibitions​​

2025

Dwellings Rehomed, The Design Museum, London 

The Floor is Lava, BowArts, Shaftesbury Avenue, London ​

2024

Together and Apart, No format Gallery, London

2023

Desire Paths, Turf Projects, Croydon 

Allodium, 28 Devonshire Road, London

A Place Bears The Name, Tension Fine Art, London ​

2022   

Annual Open Exhibition 2022, Southwark Park Gallery, London 

Page Masters Zine Fair, South London Gallery, London

Multiplied, GALLERY GALLERY, Antwerp, Belgium 

Cave Summer Exhibition, Cave Gallery, London ​

2021 

Stuck in a timeloop, CheriHarari, Online 

Auntie-Freeze 2021, Cave Gallery, London 

2020   

30works30days, 12ø, Online Exhibition ​

2019   

Chelsea College of Art Degree Show 2019, Chelsea College of Art, London 

Interim Show, Chelsea College of Art, London 

2018   

Translations, Chelsea College of Art, London

Auntie-Freeze 2018, Cave Gallery, London

Bjork Baby, Chelsea College of Art, London

Common Ground, Kennington Park, London​

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Writing / Published In:

2025

 N.37 Transfiguration, Arts of the Working Class, Berlin

2022  

MNAN Zine, Metal Institute, UK, here

TIM Magazine #3, TIM Magazine, Antwerp

THE PAPER, Good Press, Glasgow

 

 
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