Will Maddrell (b. 1997, Isle of Man, UK) is a painter largely concerned with the ways in which reality is constructed and transformed via fiction-making.
Considering issues of narrative, freewill, mutability, manifestation culture, and branding, Maddrell’s work depicts painting paraphernalia and construction materials, costume, appropriated imagery from popular culture, history, and alter egos. These subjects are mechanisms for story-telling, and demonstrate the everyday manipulation of narrative. Afloat, drenched, dripping, any signified stability, reliability and trustworthiness is washed away in the storm. Imagining soaking wet scenarios, Maddrell paints scenes in media res, in changing, watery. environments, unfolding dramatically in light bursting through clouds, after a sudden shower of rain or before the crash of a wave. Where boundaries between objects become wet, porous, and interrelated, Maddrell engages in conversations about queerness and freedom. They develop ideas with drawing, small diorama sets, Photoshop and basic 3D software to stage multiple light sources, viewpoints and evoke the sense that we are in the middle of a constantly changing but cohesive version of events.
Maddrell studied Modern Languages at the University of Bristol. Their first solo
show, Saltwater Rain, opened in 2023 with General Assembly in London.