Originally from Wales, I have lived London since moving here for university. Since graduating I have exhibited my work all over the UK and abroad. A lot of my design work nowadays is in the Welsh music industry under the name ‘wubacub’ - providing artwork for bands and also animating music videos. Two ongoing projects at the moment are La Bamba Gallery and OGOF. Ogof (meaning cave in Welsh) is a music selection, promotion, and curation site that was founded with my brother in late 2020. La Bamba Gallery is an online gallery and creative space. Though professionally design has become the focus, I still enjoy producing my paintings as they have always ultimately been the foundation upon which I create my designs.
It meant that I was able to stay in London and practice my painting when I assumed I’d have to go back to Wales, and its probably why I’m still here now. It meant immediately that I was able to get a studio and buy tools to kit it out as well. As a result, it kept me here in London and I’ve been able to more seriously able to consider and pursue a career in creative industries.
Reference: WILLIAMS023
Title: Ogof
Date: 2020
Author: Cybi Williams and Dylan Williams
Details: Ogof (meaning cave in Welsh) is a music selection, promotion, and curation site.
Media: Website
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
Description: Ogof is a Welsh electronic music review and selection website, and a place to champion voices within that world. We'll be reviewing some albums each month, showcasing our favourite selected mixes and who knows we might even become a future source for your music selections.
Reference: WILLIAMS022
Title: La Bamba Gallery
Date: 2021
Author: Cybi Williams, Billy Bagilhole and Tom Medlicott
Details: La Bamba Gallery is an online gallery and creative space.
Media: Website
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
Description: La Bamba Gallery is an aspect of the project that aims to bring art to a younger audience and aims to have more of a focus on participation by setting fun challenges and competitions online with prizes. However "La Bamba" is not restricted to its gallery aspect and is, again, generally the collaboration project between the three of us: anything from music videos to t-shirt designs.
Reference: WILLIAMS016
Title: "Maybe it’s strange to enjoy the restrictions and rules I set myself..."
Date: 2021
Author: Cybi Williams
Details: Written reflection
Media: Quote [written]
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
Description: It’s always tempting to try and suggest I have a rigid process in place for my creative work when in fact I just don’t. The end goal and aesthetic are probably the driving forces of my making process as I sort of know what I like and don’t like. My creative process is a constant exercise in problem solving - ‘how do I get that thing I’m chasing?’. Once I’ve worked that out that bit, I love getting to work. Maybe it’s strange to enjoy the restrictions and rules I set myself as opposed to the freedom thats associated with creative practice usually, but it works for me.
Reference: WILLIAMS004
Title: @alva.skogg
Date: 2021
Author: Alva Skogg
Details: Alva Skog is a Swedish illustrator based in Stockholm, Sweden. They have a bachelor in graphic design from Central Saint Martins. Clients include Apple, The Guardian and The New York Times.
Media: Website
Credit: instagram.com/alva.skog
Description: The list of artists that inspire me is constantly changing, but some artists that I think are producing some incredible work at the moment include Alva Skogg, Amelie Bertrand, Rachael Hayden, Billy Bagilhole, and Philip Geraldo. All of whom I follow on Instagram: its such a great tool for keeping up with artists - I’m always in awe of those who seem to be able to churn out such great work at such a rate.
Reference: WILLIAMS005
Title: @amelie_bertrand
Date: 2021
Author: Amélie Bertrand
Details: Amélie Bertrand’s paintings explore the idea of distortion in all its forms. Photoshop has enabled her to open up a whole field of possibilities and at the same time completely distort them. “That’s why I never use 3D software. Everything would be just too accurate,” she says.
Media: Website
Credit: instagram.com/amelie_bertrand
Description: The list of artists that inspire me is constantly changing, but some artists that I think are producing some incredible work at the moment include Alva Skogg, Amelie Bertrand, Rachael Hayden, Billy Bagilhole, and Philip Geraldo. All of whom I follow on Instagram: its such a great tool for keeping up with artists - I’m always in awe of those who seem to be able to churn out such great work at such a rate.
Reference: WILLIAMS006
Title: @rachelahayden
Date: 2021
Author: Rachael Hayden
Details: Rachel’s paintings revel in an introvert’s sardonic pleasure found in solitude and extrapolate it into a cast of inanimate object-characters that serve as companion or voyeur.
Media: Website
Credit: instagram.com/rachelahayden
Description: The list of artists that inspire me is constantly changing, but some artists that I think are producing some incredible work at the moment include Alva Skogg, Amelie Bertrand, Rachael Hayden, Billy Bagilhole, and Philip Geraldo. All of whom I follow on Instagram: its such a great tool for keeping up with artists - I’m always in awe of those who seem to be able to churn out such great work at such a rate.
Reference: WILLIAMS007
Title: @billybagilhole
Date: 2021
Author: Billy Bagilhole
Details: Bagilhole predominantly works through the mediums of painting and filmmaking. Often covering canvases with salt and thick paint, he enjoys the technicality within painting, within colour and within the eye of the lens.
Media: Website
Credit: instagram.com/billybagilhole
Description: The list of artists that inspire me is constantly changing, but some artists that I think are producing some incredible work at the moment include Alva Skogg, Amelie Bertrand, Rachael Hayden, Billy Bagilhole, and Philip Geraldo. All of whom I follow on Instagram: its such a great tool for keeping up with artists - I’m always in awe of those who seem to be able to churn out such great work at such a rate.
Reference: WILLIAMS008
Title: @philip_geraldo
Date: 2021
Author: Philip Geraldo
Details: Philip Gerald lives and works in Dublin working as an illustrator, featuring in multiple exhibitions around the world.
Media: Website
Credit: instagram.com/philip_geraldo
Description: The list of artists that inspire me is constantly changing, but some artists that I think are producing some incredible work at the moment include Alva Skogg, Amelie Bertrand, Rachael Hayden, Billy Bagilhole, and Philip Geraldo. All of whom I follow on Instagram: its such a great tool for keeping up with artists - I’m always in awe of those who seem to be able to churn out such great work at such a rate.
Reference: WILLIAMS019
Title: Magnum Photos
Date: NA
Author: Magnum Photos
Details: Magnum represents some of the world’s most renowned photographers, maintaining its founding ideals and idiosyncratic mix of journalist, artist and storyteller.
Media: Website
Credit: magnumphotos.com
Description: I spend a lot of time on the magnum photos website just looking at the photos and their captions.
Reference: WILLIAMS009
Title: Exhalation: Stories
Date: 2019
Author: Ted Chiang
Details: A collection of nine short stories containing exploring such issues as humankind's place in the universe, the nature of humanity, bioethics, virtual reality, free will and determinism, time travel, and the uses of robotic forms of A.I.
Media: Publication
Credit: wikipedia.org/Ted_Chiang
Description: I enjoy Ted Chiang’s work a lot. His work is mainly science fiction short stories. He seems to have a unique approach to making astute points about the human experience: through world building. It’s always astounding to see how well thought out his settings are in order to explore characters and themes. I’d like to think that I work with similar priorities - it’s just so satisfying to experience someone doing it so well.
"People are made of stories. Our memories are not the impartial accumulation of every second we’ve lived; they’re the narrative that we assembled out of selected moments. Which is why, even when we’ve experienced the same events as other individuals, we never constructed identical narratives: the criteria used for selecting moments were different for each of us, and a reflection of our personalities. Each of us noticed the detailsthat caught our attention and remembered what was important to us, and the narratives we built shaped our personalities in turn."
Reference: WILLIAMS021
Title: Failed Piece Example
Date: 2020
Author: Cybi Williams
Details: Image on Aluminium
Media: Painting
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
Description: Lots of my pieces fail but this one I felt failed so much I even bought a special sander to remove what I'd done off the aluminium for ever. Its now framed and up in my room ready to be improved.
Reference: WILLIAMS003
Title: Instagram
Date: 2010
Author: Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger
Details: A photo and video sharing social networking service which allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organised by hashtags and geographical tagging.
Media: Website
Credit: wikipedia.org/Instagram
Description: It’s such a great tool for keeping up with artists - I’m always in awe of those who seem to be able to churn out such great work at such a rate.
Reference: WILLIAMS011
Title: Blob-brush
Date: NA
Author: Adobe Inc.
Details: An Adobe Illustrator tool, which allows multiple overlapping vector brush strokes to easily merge or join, and a revamped gradient tool allowing for more in-depth colour manipulation as well as transparency in gradients.
Media: Image
Credit: wikipedia.org/Adobe_Illustrator
Description: I always start with thick lines. Everything else follows that to be honest.
Reference: WILLIAMS015
Title: The Movies
Date: 1957
Author: Richard Griffith and Arthur Mayer
Details: Hollywood anthology of images.
Media: Photobook
Credit: Courtesy of the artist
Description: “The Movies” is a photo book I have that I found in an old charity shop a few years ago. It's not exactly a major influence but it’s extremely useful for when I’m having a creator's block. Its a Hollywood anthology and my copy is from around the fifties or sixties. It contains thousands of pictures that are always great compositionally, with a great variety in tone and topic. Reading about the lengths to which people went in order to achieve shots is always fascinating. I find the old special effects tricks the most interesting as its part of that problem solving aspect of creativity in which I often find myself.
Reference: WILLIAMS012
Title: Euston Steps - Study
Date: 1980
Author: Frank Auerbach
Details: 'Euston Steps - Study' is one of a number of paintings made by Frank Auerbach in the train stations, building sites and streets around his studio in London's Camden Town. This is one of a series of paintings depicting the steps at Euston Station.
Media: Painting
Credit: wikipedia.org/Frank_Auerbach
Description: I love that kind of textural painting. There’s always just such a process behind it, and hopefully I show a little of that in my paintings.
Reference: WILLIAMS013
Title: York Way Railway Bridge from Caledonian Road, Stormy Day
Date: 1967
Author: Leon Kossof
Details: Kossof was a British figurative painter known for portraits, life drawings and cityscapes of London, England.
Media: Painting
Credit: wikipedia.org/Leon_Kossoff
Description: Description: I love that kind of textural painting. There’s always just such a process behind it, and hopefully I show a little of that in my paintings.
Reference: WILLIAMS014
Title: Double Rebound
Date: 2016
Author: Alexis Harding
Details: Oil and Acrylic paint on Panel
Media: Painting
Credit: alexisharding.com
Description: I remember seeing these and loving their simplicity. It’s so hard to achieve something that is both striking and has appreciation for subtlety. It’s done so well here. One day maybe my work will chill out a bit and I’ll get to make something that has the same kind of feeling as this.
Reference: WILLIAMS020
Title: BRUTUS
Date: 1999
Author: Tanadori Yokoo
Details: Tadanori Yokoo is a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter. Yokoo’s signature style of psychedelia and pastiche engages a wide span of modern visual and cultural phenomena from Japan and around the world.
Media: Postcard
Credit: wikipedia.org/Tadanori_Yokoo
Description: For Brutus, I tried making only slight changes in the colour of the photograph (I used), adding in some caligraphy. It turned out to portray Miminashi Hoichi's sutra, and so evoked a Buddhist atmosphere. The baseball stars (Shigeo NAGASHIMA and Sadaharu OH of the Yomiuri Giants) make absolutely opposite impressions.
Reference: WILLIAMS017
Title: Meirionnydd
Date: 2007–11
Author: Chris Clunn
Details: Black and white portrait photograph
Media: Photograph
Credit: chrisclunn.com
Description: I’ve always liked photography that has a journalistic element to it. I love the work of David Hurn and Chris Clunn. I come back to their collections quite often as they’re about places and things I know well. It’s so interesting to see these things caught in such a way. I spend a lot of time on the magnum photos website just looking at the photos and their captions.
Reference: WILLIAMS023
Title: Land of My Father
Date: 1971
Author: David Hurn
Details:Photographer David Hurn's carefully observed photographs reveal both the traditional and the modern sides of the shifting landscape of his homeland Wales over the past 50 years.
Media: Photograph
Credit: magnumphotos.com/land-of-my-father
Description: I’ve always liked photography that has a journalistic element to it. I love the work of David Hurn and Chris Clunn. I come back to their collections quite often as they’re about places and things I know well. It’s so interesting to see these things caught in such a way. I spend a lot of time on the magnum photos website just looking at the photos and their captions.