William Artt – Biography

Born 1967 in Belfast, Northern Ireland, William Artt has exhibited his work widely throughout Ireland and the United Kingdom. His work has also been represented in exhibitions in Berlin, Tokyo, New York, Kentucky, Madrid, Valencia and Barcelona.

Following the conclusion of his studies at the University of Ulster in 1991 he lectured in Art and Design at Castlereagh College of Further Education while building his artistic practice having his first solo exhibition 'Positive Thinking' in 1993. That same year he won the Ernest Anderson Bursary Award for his work shown at that exhibition.

For the next 10 years he continued to exhibit regularly working mainly in the mediums of paint and fine art printmaking techniques.

In the mid 1990s he began experimenting with the computer to generate images which he then used to create his paintings and prints. Since 2005 he has worked solely using photographic and digital means of production using combinations of his own and found photographs which explore contemporary obsessions of wealth, luxury, work and beauty. The resulting images, often displayed in large scale are rich in colour and effect.

William has also curated several exhibitions and in 2005 was asked to curate the artwork which was to be sold at the WAVE Fundraising exhibition. Artists who donated work for the exhibition included Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and Barry Flanaghan among others. Many 'up and coming' artists from Northern Ireland were also included. The exhibition went on to raise over £350,000 for the WAVE Trauma Centre.

In 2008 his work was represented at the La Nau Digital Showcase in Valencia which exhibited the work of some of the world's top digital artists. He was also the UK and Ireland representative on the European Visual Artists Network until 2006.

He has won several awards for his practice and his work is represented in several public and private collections, most notably the Arts Council of Northern Ireland and the Ulster University.

He currently lectures in Multi-Media and Computing at Belfast Metropolitan College.