Biography
William Grob is British-Swiss artist born in 1992, currently lives/works in Berlin. Grob Studied BA photography at Falmouth university. He is a self-taught painter, from a young age used paint and colour to express himself.
"I was an artist before I could talk. When I was a child I had a severe speech disorder which shaped my whole life, as I could not verbally express myself until the age of seven. Art became my mother tongue, using colour and form to express my happiness or frustration which is now, subconsciously, deep-rooted into my practice. The majority of my work comes from that place. All I consciously try to create is a sense of understanding with expressions understandable to anyone."
William Grob's figurative paintings explore the complexity of communication, that draws from his past and looks at how the physicality of a subject can express itself like a language. The paintings always come from a place between memory and fantasy, between utopian and dystopian, which create these vivid visual worlds, that blend honest truths of unspoken words and daydreams together. The ambiguous messages capture a rich array of information, responding to life at that present moment, from what he reads to where he goes, to his hearts throb.
The series ‘Lost Millennials' started as a medium to try and understand the social situation of todays and yesterday's generation. Now the series goes beyond the conventional idea of a generation. Society's response to technology is an insecure phenomenon where the same tendencies of the millennial generation ‘The Me Me Me Generation' are echoed to people from all age groups. Closing ourselves off from the real world as we're sucked into the screen. Grob's paintings depict people without technology, in the rare moments when they are idol and slightly lost in their world. As Proust famously wrote, ‘The only paradise is the one we have lost'. The paintings create an environment to allow the subject the space to reflect the emptiness that came from the abundance of digital information.
William Grob's creative journey is not bound by the statuesque or based from any formal painting education, but by intuition, curiosity and self-exploration. His paintings are an invitation to our own subconscious, to explore new perspectives that create the space to reflect on the complexities of everyday life.
“The idea of finding ourselves and losing ourselves are the same thing. The creative process is both introspective and extrospective… We sometimes need the willingness to leave the paddock and our own preconceptions of ourselves behind…”
William Grob
Grob's works have been collected by various private collections worldwide, London, Paris, New York, Berlin, LA, Geneva, Hong Kong with exhibitions in CICA Museum Korea, König Galeries London, Miami during Art Basel in partnership with Phillips X Particle.
CV.
Residency:
Malevich.io, Como, 2022
Plop X Cob, London, 2021
Galerie 102, Berlin, 2016
Roll-up Gate, NYC, 2015
Solo Exhibitions:
Berlin - 2022 May 5th - June 10th - Luisa Catucci Gallery, (duo) Lost Millennials
Berlin – 2020 Jan 18th – March 20th – Luisa Catucci Gallery
Basel - 2018 – Scope Art Fair – Solo booth
London – 2017 – Solo Show at Albert's Club during Frieze Art Fair
Falmouth - 2013 April – Solo Photographic Exhibition at Five Degrees Below
Group Exhibitions:
Brussels – 2023 – Nosbaum Reding gallery weekend
Brussels – 2023 – Nosbaum Reding Art Brussels Fair
Amsterdam – 2023 – 2012 Never Happened: An Epilogue - InDebt Gallery
Miami – 2022 – Stream of Consciousness – Phillips + Particle – Basel week
London – 2022 Talk Art Group Show
London - 2021 - Plop Residency Show - Cob Gallery
London - 2021 - Tusk charity event - Soho Revue Gallery
London - 2020 - Open Call - König Galerie London
Korea – 2020 – New Media – CICA Museum
London – 2018 – London Affordable Art Fair – Lomaka Gallery
NYC – 2018 Multiple Group shows in with - Chelsea Art Group
Berlin – 2018 – Group show - The Palace Arts pop up show
Athens – 2018 – Group show with Art Number 23
Berlin – 2016 – Potsdamer Str. 102 Gallery Group show
NYC – 2015 October – Roll Up Gate Studio Exhibition
NYC – 2015 October - Green point Gallery Pop Up
Brighton – 2014 August - Collaborative Exhibition
London – 2014 June – FreeRange at the Truman Brewery, Brick Lane
London – 2014 June – Collaborative Exhibition at the Rag Factory