Michelle Williams Gamaker
b. 1979, United Kingdom
Award-winning moving image artist Michelle Williams Gamaker (b.1979, London) developed Fictional Activism to interrogate 20th Century cinema by retelling the histories of marginalised actors and by proposing critical alternatives to colonial storytelling in British and Hollywood studio films. She is joint winner of Film London’s Jarman Award (2020) and has an extensive national and international profile, including prestigious BFI London Film Festivals (2017, 2018, 2021), Aesthetica Short Film Festival (winner of Best Experimental Film, 2021) and Raindance (2022). Recent exhibitions include I Multiply Each Day, Gus Fisher Gallery, Auckland (2021), Whitechapel’s The London Open 2022, Like There is Hope and I Can Dream of Another World at Hauser & Wirth, and a major public commission Springfield Eternal in the atrium of Springfield Hospital for charity Hospital Rooms, opening in 2023. Our Mountains are Painted on Glass has been co-commissioned with South London Gallery (SLG), where it was shown in early 2023. Williams Gamaker’s work is in the Arts Council Collection and her entire filmography has been recognised and preserved by the BFI National Film Archive. She is a Studio Artist at Gasworks, where she is also trustee. Williams Gamaker is Reader in BA Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and is currently a British Academy Wolfson Fellow. She champions emerging artists, most recently as Selector for the prestigious John Moore’s Painting Prize (2020) and Bloomberg New Contemporaries (2021).