Lucy Williams: Radiant City – 9780903696852

A major monograph documenting a decade of figurative and geometric work by London-based contemporary artist Lucy Williams. Her mixed-media bas-relief collages depict modernist architecture and interiors, from tower blocks and municipal buildings to private residences in Palm Springs. All made painstakingly by hand, this is a singular contemporary art practice that employs fine art, design and craft traditions in the digital age.

Radiant City is a major monograph documenting a decade of figurative and geometric work by London-based British contemporary artist Lucy Williams (b. 1972, Oxford). Her mixed-media bas-relief collages depict modernist architecture and interiors, from tower blocks and municipal buildings to private residences in Palm Springs.

All made painstakingly by hand, this is a contemporary art practice that, with the precision of an architect or a draughtsperson, references craft traditions, using materials including paper, Plexiglas, wood veneer, fabric, piano wire and thread. Space, form, pattern, design and geometry meet with colour and light to form mesmerising, detailed scenes such as tiled swimming pools with mosaic walls, the imposing facades of Brutalist buildings, and domestic interiors containing bookcases replete with books, vases and ornaments. In addition to figurative works, the publication also features the artist’s ‘Threaded Collages’, abstract geometric pieces inspired by Bauhaus tapestries and constructivism.

Williams creates repeated triangular and diamond forms, using colourful painted papers along with silk and cotton threads. Radiant City features a foreword by Joseph Becker, Curator of Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; essays by writers Charlotte Mullins, Salena Barry and Kathryn Lloyd; and an interview by art historian Ben Street. This, Williams’s second trade monograph, has been designed by Kristin Metho, edited by Matt Price, and published by Hurtwood with generous support from Berggruen Gallery, San Francisco.