William Bock is a multi disciplinary artist exploring relationships between people and the environments they inhabit. Poet Patrick Kavanagh wrote of the universal being found in the local.  In the context of the climate emergency,  ‘digging down’ into the specific complexities of a landscape is a way the artist works with communities to process the wider ecological and social issues at stake.  The artist creates experiential, social art projects that are specific to place, connecting us to our common ground and the ecology we find ourselves living in.

Bock’s work encompasses the production and curation of public events, workshops, exhibitions and residencies. He is member of the Wilderness Art Collective and  a founding member of award winning artist group Dig Collective producing projects commissioned by Art Safiental Biennale for Land and Environment Art (2018) in Switzerland and PEER Gallery for Real Estates (2015) in London.  He was co-director of Strangeworks (2006 – 2012) theatre collective, producing projects for the Barbican and New Walsall Art Gallery in the UK and internationally.

Biography

1982                           Born Cork, Ireland
2002  –  2005            BA Hons Performance Design and Practise Central St Martins
2012   –  2013            MA Fine Art, City and Guilds School of Art

Selected Projects

2024 – 2025              Dinnseanchas Artist Commission, HomeTree, Ireland
2023                          Smokehouse Installation, Earth Rising at IMMA Dublin
2022  –  2024            Tarraingt Green Rope, CP West Cork Islands
2021  –  2022             River Residency, Ormston House, Clare Co. Council
2019  –  2020             Land Walks Project, Arts Council Ireland, WCDP & Create
2018                           A Hole in the Alps, Art Safiental commission, Switzerland
2018                           ReWilders,  Skibbereen Arts Festival Commission, Ireland
2016                           Blow In, Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, Ireland
2015                           Hoarding: A fiction of accelerated urban development  PEER Gallery
2014                           Hole Story Project, St Johns Old Rectory, London

Selected Shows

2023.                         Solo Show –  RISING, Cavan Town Hall, Cavan
2022                          Group Show – River Residency, Ormston House Limerick
2021                          Group Show – Fragments in Constellation, Cork
2020                          Group Show –  Wilderness of the Mind, Sidney Nolan Trust, UK (online)
2020                          Solo Show –  Land Walks Land Talks Land Marks, Uillinn Gallery, Cork
2017                          Group Show Members Show, Uillinn West Cork Arts Centre, Ireland
2015  –  2017            E20 Foyer Exhibition, Stratford, London
2017                          Group Show –  London Pinhole Festival, Four Corners Gallery, London
2016                          Group Show –  Whithurst Park Art Fair, UK
2016                          Group Show  – Post It, Darnley Road Gallery, London
2015                          Group Show – Figur[e]ation, GalleryELL, USA (Online)
2014                          Group Show – Gallery 286, London

Awards

2020                         First Prize, Sustainability First Art Award
2016                         Shortlisted Artist (Dig Collective) Volksschule Kleefeld, Bern
2014                         Winner (Dig Collective) ArtLicks Weekender, ArtQuest Workweek Prize
2012                         Fenton Arts Trust

Residencies

2021  –  22                River Residency Commissioned by Ormston House, Ireland
2020                         Butler Gallery Seed Fund Residency
2020                         Land Walks Land Talks Land Mark West Cork Arts Centre, Ireland
2018                         Acts of Leaving, West Cork Arts Centre, Ireland
2016                         Blow In, West Cork Arts Centre, Ireland
2011                         University of Guadalajara, Mexico