About
Rory Williams is a Tyne and Wear-based painter, curator and art instructor with interdisciplinary interests in figurative painting, digital media and community art engagement. His artistic and curatorial practices often merge, blurring the lines between facilitator and creator, creating community collaborative painting projects that explore contemporary themes.
Curriculum Vitae
EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibitions:
- Like Ships in the Night, The Customs House, South Shields, 2024
Group Exhibitions:
- Yorkshire’s Emerging Artists, Skipton Town Hall Gallery, Skipton, 2024
- Arachne, The Customs House, South Shields, 2024
- Prometheus, The Customs House, South Shields, 2023
- TCH Open Exhibition 2022, The Customs House, South Shields
- Glaucus and Scylla, The Customs House, South Shields
- TCH21 Winter Art Selling Exhibition, The Customs House, South Shields
CURATORIAL PROJECTS
- Fairy Tales and Fun:30 Years of Pantomime at The Customs House, The Customs House, South Shields 2024
- Like Ships in the Night: Solo Exhibition by Rory Williams, The Customs House, South Shields, 2024
- Takeover Open Exhibition 2024, The Customs House, South Shields, 2024
- Arachne Collaborative Painting Project, The Customs House, South Shields, 2024
- Don’t Smile for the Camera – A Solo Exhibition of Pete Zulu, The Customs House, South Shields, 2024
- TCH23 Open Exhibition, The Customs House, South Shields, 2023
- Gaze on Screen – LGBTQIA+ Stories in Film and Media, The Customs House, South Shields, 2023
- Leaving a Mark- A Solo Exhibition of Deborah Snowball Carr, The Customs House, South Shields, 2023
- Takeover 2023: Open Art Exhibition, The Customs House, South Shields, 2023
- Prometheus Collaborative Painting Project, The Customs House, South Shields, 2023
- Inspired by Lindisfarne, The Customs House, South Shields, 2023
- TCH Open Exhibition 2022, The Customs House, South Shields, 2022
- Out of Place, A Solo Exhibition by Darren Cairney, The Customs House, South Shields, 2022
- Amra Shobai Ekhanay: We Are Here, The Customs House, South Shields, 2022
- His Life: South Tyneside, A Retrospective Painting Exhibition of Jack Grassby, The Customs House, South Shields, 2022
- Takeover 2022: Open Art Exhibition, The Customs House, South Shields, 2022
- Glaucus and Scylla, The Customs House, South Shields, 2022
- Express Yourself – International Women’s Day Exhibition, The Customs House, South Shields, 2022
- Stories from Here and There, The Customs House, South Shields, 2022
- TCH21 Winter Art Selling Exhibition, The Customs House, South Shields, 2021
Goodbye, Strangers, Moving Gallery, Sunderland, 2021 - Escape Velocity, Moving Gallery, Sunderland, 2021
- Our Fragile Coexistence, Art Matters Now, Online, 2020
- (S)he, Exhibition of the Hatton Collection, Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle, 2017
EDUCATION & TRAINING
Short courses:
- Contemporary Paintings: Responding to Images of the Body, Arts Academy London, 2023
- Understanding Contemporary Art, Central Saint Martins, UAL, 2023
- Introduction to Modern Art History, Central Saint Martins, UAL, 2023
AWARDS, GRANTS & RESIDENCIES
- Artist-in-Residence, Cultural Spring, 2024
- CLLD Creative Industries Grant, Sunderland Culture, 2022
- Broadside Covid-19 Recovery Residency, Broadside Creatives CIC, 2021
- Santander Enterprise Fund, University of Sunderland, 2020
- Creative Space Residency, North East Contemporary Visual Arts Network, 2020 (received as Art Matters Now)
- Creative Development Fellowship, Sunderland Culture, 2019–2020