William Peers
“The pieces spring to life: here a torso, delicately twisted, and a graceful Cycladic form stretching up… dancing limbs encircle each other, a couple holds hands and a strange, mythical creature, half woman, half scorpion, rises from a point”
- Charlotte Hobson
Charity: Bude Sea Pool
William Peers studied at Falmouth Art College, after which he was apprenticed to a stone-carver, Michael Black, who urged him to work slowly and entirely by hand. Peers worked in the marble quarries of Carrara, Italy, and later spent time in Corsica where he found a tranquil retreat to work and develop his ideas. His earliest carvings were figurative and followed the long history of English stone carving brought to prominence by Henry Moore and Eric Gill.
In the 1990s Peers moved to Cornwall, and there followed a period of 15 years where he exclusively carved relief sculptures in Hornton Stone. Over time his work has become increasingly abstract. In 2007 he created a large series of work in Portuguese marble. The change of material had a dramatic effect on the style of his work. In 2010 he embarked on a series, 100 Days: Sketched in Marble, in which he carved a marble sculpture each day for one hundred days. Working repeatedly within a time limit led him to a bolder approach to carving.
Recently Peers has been exploring the relationship between positive and negative shapes. Removing more marble allows the negative shapes to play a greater part – the focus shifts between the marble contours and the air around them.
Photo: Sacha Peers
Education
Falmouth College of Art
Select Solo Exhibitions
2021 | Origin, John Martin Gallery,Cromwell Place, London
2018 | A Line in Space, John Martin Gallery, London
2016 | The Space Between, CIRCA (now Everard Read) London
2014 | Carvings in Marble, John Martin Gallery, London
2010 | 100 Days, John Martin Gallery, London
2007 | New Work in Marble, John Martin Gallery, London
2005 | Stone Carvings, John Martin Gallery, London
2002 | Wall-hung carvings, John Martin Gallery, London
2001 | Three Eastern Heads, Art2001, Business Design Centre
2000 | Eight carvings, Summer Exhibition, John Martin Gallery, London
1996 | Exhibition of carvings, John Martin Gallery, London
1995 | One man exhibition of prints & interior form sculptures, Hyde Park Gallery, London
1993 | Exhibition of carvings, Gigondas, France
Select Group Exhibitions
2021 | on form unlocked, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
2020 | Still, Everard Read London
2020 | Moorwood Art, Somerset
2020 |onform sculpture, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
2019 | Fanfare, Everard Read, London
2017 | Moncrieff-Bray Gallery
2017 | Josie Eastwood Fine Art
2016 | onform sculpture, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
2016 | Art 16, John Martin Gallery, London
2016 | CIRCA, opening group exhibition – London
2014 | onform sculpture, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
2013 | onform London, The Crypt, St Pancras
2012 | Woburn Artbeat, Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire
2012 | Sculptural, Coombe Trenchard, Devon
2012 | onform sculpture, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
2012 | Pertaining to Things Natural, John Martin Gallery, Chelsea Physic Garden
2011 | Glyndebourne Festival, East Sussex
2011 | Joze London, London
2010 | ‘10 Joze Show, Sussex
2010 | onform sculpture, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
2009 | Art London, John Martin Gallery, London
2009 | ’09 Joze Show, Sussex
2009 | Sculpture at Woburn, Sladmore Gallery, Woburn Abbey, Beds
2008 | onform Sculpture, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire
2008 | The Secret Garden, Solomon Gallery, Dublin
2006 | Art London, John Martin Gallery, London
2006 | Joint exhibition with Neale Howells – Moncrieff-Bray Gallery, Sussex
2003 | Chelsea Flower Show
2002 | The Armoury Show, New York
1998 | New Artists 1998, John Martin Gallery, London
1997 | Group shows, John Martin Gallery, London
1994 | Joint family exhibition, Hereford
1992 | Oxfordshire Art Weeks
1991 | Royal Academy Summer Exhibition, London