* WILL MAW (BRITISH b. 1973)
THE LIGHTER TOUCH

limited edition screenprint on paper, signed, titled and numbered 1/5
mounted, framed and under glass

image size 109cm x 57cm, overall size 126cm x 73cm

Note: Will Maw was born in London in 1973 and grew up in Bristol. Maw studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1993 to 1996, including a three month residency at the School of Fine Art in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Living in Glasgow until 2006, he worked mainly through Glasgow Print Studio and exhibited nationally and internationally, curated print exhibitions from around the world travelling widely including two government funded artists residencies in Arizona. Collaborations with well known Scottish artists and printmakers were routine in what remains the largest workshop of its kind in the UK; exhibitions in Glasgow, London, Edinburgh and New York were on the regular calendar of events. In 2000 he organised an exhibition of his own work in Addis Ababa at the Alliance Francais. Working with Glasgow City Council, Maw organised and operated many community workshops and exhibitions through school groups, hospital groups and social centres staging exhibitions in various Glasgow Museums venues. The work produced won prizes and on one occasion was exhibited in the Tate Modern in London. In 2006 Maw moved to London. Within two months he was on the Royal Academy payroll and began to work for Advanced Graphics London producing screenprint editions. Shortly afterwards he enrolled at the Royal College of Art and left in 2009 after completing the Master of Arts course in Printmaking. Maw returned to Glasgow that year with an exhibition at the Compass Gallery, Glasgow. Having worked in print publishing workshops for fifteen years, Maw resolved in 2008 to establish an independent workshop to continue his own practice making artwork on paper as well as the ongoing existing collaborations, including the resolution of the ‘Pictosaurus’ Archive, an extensive collection of 14,000 pages of collected and categorised images compiled by the late Charlie Riddell. Following the completion of the RCA MA in 2009 and the completion of the monumental Histoire Naturelle series of prints, he coined Fountainwell as a working name for the studio producing artists prints, books and works on paper including the provision of print services to photographers, designers and writers. Maw's own creative work maintains a focus on exploring the diversity and multiplicity of printed media using collage and superimposition of often contradictory imagery. Increasingly the finished works have turned more towards books and manuscripts as documentary works, nurtured perhaps by a continuing contract with a conservation framers specialising in rare works on paper and fine prints from 17th to 20th century. Recent exhibitions include the Eagle Gallery ‘Natural Histories’ group exhibition, a one person show at North House Gallery and a permanent installation at The Hilton Green Park as well as various group shows in London and Glasgow.