Bill Yaxley: Carpet Musings, Interiors & Small Sculptures
16th– 30th November 2019
For those who are already aware of Bill Yaxley’s artwork, the announcement of his forthcoming exhibition, to be held at Four Eight Four this November, will indeed be pleasing news. For those not as yet acquainted with Bill’s work; an opportunity presents itself, to enter the mindscape of one of the most inventive visual artists working in Australia today.
Although Bill Yaxley has spent much of his life working the land, predominantly as both orchardist and viniculturalist, his other form of primary production, has from his early years in Shepparton - Victoria, been the creation of individual and idiosyncratic artworks.
A self-taught artist, Yaxley has always found space in a busy life, to absorb all manner of information from his surroundings, which he then processes and interprets in his own distinctive manner.
There is an inherent playfulness to Bill’s art making, allowing ideas to flow in a variety of directions, all the while granting himself licence to shape his images from a great diversity of materials. The artist presents us with Art Sans Frontiers– Art Without Borders, where his scientific, environmental and social interests often collide head on with characteristically inventive Yaxley humour.
If, as has often been stated, that amongst the functions of art, is the possibility for artists to reveal uncommon insights into daily events, or perhaps, alternative and engaging ways of viewing the all too familiar (making the ordinary –extraordinary), - then Bill Yaxley, both deliberately and intuitively, is just such an exponent of this process.
Bill’s work can be found in many important collections, including: The National Gallery of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery, Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, Hamilton Art Gallery - New Zealand, Gold Coast City Art Gallery and the Parliament House Art Collection - Canberra, to name just a few. He has also been the subject of a number of publications and a recent short film, “The Adventures of William Yaxley”.
