William Peers

 (B. 1965, UK)

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 fifteen 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 the relationship between positive and negative shapes has become an interest, and several larger works for the landscape have seen a dramatic change in scale in his work. Two of his monumental sculptures are permanently displayed at Linthwaite House in Britain’s Lake District as part of the Leeu Hotel Group’s collection.

In his recent exhibitions, ‘The Space Between’ and ‘A Line in Space’, Peers has been exploring the relationship between positive and negative shapes. Removing more marble allows the negative shapes to play a greater part, and the focus is not only on the marble contours, but on the air that surrounds them; a conversation between matter and space.

Past exhibitions include seven solo exhibitions with John Martin Gallery as well as exhibitions in New York and San Francisco. Public exhibitions include On Form at Asthall Manor, Woburn Abbey and Glyndebourne.

Selected Previous Exhibitions

2019
SUMMER, Everard Read, London, UK
Fanfare, Everard Read London, London, UK

2018 
A Line in Space, John Martin Gallery, London, UK

2016
The Space Between, CIRCA Everard Read, London, UK
Art 16, John Martin Gallery, London, UK
CIRCA London, London, UK

2014
On form sculpture, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire, UK
Carvings in Marble, John Martin Gallery, London, UK

2013
On form London, The Crypt, St Pancras Church London, UK

2012
Woburn Artbeat, Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire, UK
Sculptural, Coombe Trenchard, Devon, UK
On Form Sculpture, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire, UK
Pertaining to Things Natural, John Martin Gallery at Chelsea Physic Garden, London, UK

2011
Glyndebourne Festival, East Sussex, UK
Joze London, London, UK
10 Joze Show, Sussex, UK

2010
10 Joze Show, Sussex, UK
On form sculpture, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire, UK
100 Days: Sketched in Marble, John Martin Gallery, London, UK

2009
Art London, John Martin Gallery, London, UK
’09 Joze Show, Sussex, UK
’09 Joze Show, Sussex, UK
Sculpture at Woburn, Sladmore Gallery at Woburn Abbey, UK

2008
On form Sculpture, Asthall Manor, Oxfordshire, UK
The Secret Garden, Solomon Gallery, Dublin, Ireland

2007
New Work in Marble, John Martin Gallery, London, UK

2006
Art London, John Martin Gallery, London, UK
Joint exhibition with Neale Howells, Moncrieff-Bray Gallery, Sussex, UK

2005
Stone Carvings, John Martin Gallery, London, UK

2003
Chelsea Flower Show, London, UK

2002
The Armoury Show, New York, USA
Wall-hung carvings, John Martin Gallery, London, UK

2001
Three Eastern Heads, Art2001, Business Design Centre

2000
Summer Exhibition, John Martin Gallery, London, UK

1998
New Artists 1998, Group Show, John Martin Gallery, London, UK

1997
Group shows, John Martin Gallery, London, UK

1996
Exhibition of carvings, John Martin Gallery, London, UK

1995
One man exhibition of prints & interior form sculptures, Hyde Park Gallery, London, UK

1994
Joint family exhibition, Hereford, UK

1993
Exhibition of carvings, Gigondas, France

1992
Art Week, Oxford, UK

1991
Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London, UK