Wilf Tilley (Prof. Michael W. Miller) was born in the North of England and began his career as an actor, age 16, with the National Youth Theatre at The Old Vic in a production of Antony and Cleopatra in which Helen Mirren played Cleopatra and he carried a spear. “Wilf Tilley” (a combination of parental names) was part-adopted for a first solo exhibition at the AIR Gallery, London, when he was 27. Following an MA degree at the Royal College of Art, London, an interest in the neuro-anatomical drawings of Leonardo da Vinci led, via the Open University, to research on neuronal modelling in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics in the University of Oxford. He was a Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Oxford, and after a two-year Fellowship in the International Center for Medical Research, Kobe, was a founder member, then senior adviser at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, where he designed a brain science exploratorium (BrainBox). Wilf has held eight solo exhibitions, participated in group exhibitions internationally, and held a first retrospective in Japan (The Neuro-mytheologian And Other Works), in 2003. A novel (The Ladyboy Murders) was shortlisted for the Impress Prize for New Writers in 2015. In November/December 2017, he held a second retrospective at the Frederick Harris Gallery, Tokyo. And a recent portrait (Manami-san) is part of the New Light Art Prize Exhibition in the UK, touring five galleries nationally (2023-2024).
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Categories: contemporary japanese artists.
Artistic domains:
Printmaking, Painting.
Account type:
Artist,
member since 2019 (Country of origin Japan).
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A collection of revisionist interpretations of classical artworks of the Western canon. I have now lived[...]
A collection of revisionist interpretations of classical artworks of the Western canon. I have now lived in the east as long as I have lived in the west, and this has led to a revision of my ideas as to what is universal in art in terms of subject matter and technique.
A series of six, large drawings (originally nine) shown in Japan in the early 1990s, both in Kobe in[...]
A series of six, large drawings (originally nine) shown in Japan in the early 1990s, both in Kobe in an exhibition sponsored by the British Council, and in Tokyo. The drawings were restored and re-framed in 2001: 77 x 55 cm, pastel, graphite and chalk on Canson paper. (Private Collection, Japan)
This collection includes a number shown online as "A Preliminary Selection of Eighteen Ludic Models:[...]
This collection includes a number shown online as "A Preliminary Selection of Eighteen Ludic Models: Medical, Scientific, Religious, Economic, Political And Amorous..., and some from a gallery exhibition in Tokyo in 1998: Nine International Monetary Fun Devices And Other Works. The accompanying texts, deliberately overlong, pendantic and windy, are important to an appreciation of the models, and I have edited some for inclusion here. However, the models have a number of indirect causes, if no certain effects, the first of which is "Homo Ludens" (Johan Huizinga, 1938), which I first read when I was twenty. A small self-portrait as the inventor of ludic modelling, Pertinax Ludicrous Exomphalos, is now in the JCR collection of Pembroke College, Oxford. Other influences include Zen koan.
The works in this collection, placed in storage in the UK, in Oxford (1991) and later moved to a house[...]
The works in this collection, placed in storage in the UK, in Oxford (1991) and later moved to a house in the village of Sutton (hence the name), were retrieved in 2023, and catalogued in November of the same year. Some of the work was exhibited in the 1970s in London and executed at various addresses in Rome (and elsewhere in Italy) plus London and Riyadh. The portfolio consists of 48 works and provides a snapshot of the artist’s early work before moving to Japan for the first time in 1991 and finally in 1996. (The works shown here are organized chronologically (1976-1986) with details of their places of execution. The artist seal and numbers are catalogue additions made in 2023.)
Six ink and oil wash drawings from the mid 1990s. The works were last exhibited in 1998 in Japan, but[...]
Six ink and oil wash drawings from the mid 1990s. The works were last exhibited in 1998 in Japan, but are now too fragile to show. The images shown here are cropped for online reproduction. Two works from the series are missing.
A small number of works, from the series "A Story in silico" and "The Harajuku Series" is available[...]
A small number of works, from the series "A Story in silico" and "The Harajuku Series" is available as non-fungible tokens through OpenSea: after logon search "WilfTilley". Copies of the works on offer are viewable here. Hard copies of works already sold are marked as such
This is a first, facile, visuo-verbal Turing experiment with an AI art generator (NightCafe) that uses[...]
This is a first, facile, visuo-verbal Turing experiment with an AI art generator (NightCafe) that uses word prompts. I utilized the stable diffusion selection and bounced images around between the styles available in January 2023. I decided to use William Shakespeare’s, so-called, Dark Lady sonnets for my word prompts – choosing a line or lines from each that I considered best expressed the mood of the sonnet collection as a whole. There is much speculation about the identity of Shakespeare’s lady who is described as having black hair and eyes and dun colored skin. Interestingly, when working on sonnet 130, I chose the lines, “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun; / If hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head.”, but the program informed me that I was using prohibited words – presumably, ‘breasts’. This problem aside, the program produced interesting, if arbitrary images: arbitrary that is, in its inability to parse erotic, poetic description from prose descriptions of physical attributes. Possibly when algorithmic reproduction of human thought passes the Turing test, the algorithms will recognize iambic pentameter and the sonnet form, and I will be allowed to use the word ‘breasts’. I have attached the sonnet in question to each image and denoted the words I used as generators. The provenance of the starter images is unknown (and Getty Images, I notice, is in the process of suing stable diffusion for unlicensed use of photographs). There is also some discussion as to what constitutes novel iteration of primary images, so perhaps authorship of these images should read: W. Shakespeare and W. Tilley et al. (Following download, the images were re-sized to 720px for publication, and edited for tone, color and contrast, otherwise the dark lady and her poetic attributes are AI artifacts. There is a second experiment (unpublished) based upon a well-known poem by Andrew Marvell (1621-1678 'To his coy mistress'.
"Sonnet 127 / My mistress’ eyes are raven black."
Digital Arts | Several sizes
Not For Sale
"Sonnet 128 / Give them thy fingers, me thy lips to kiss."
Digital Arts | Several sizes
Not For Sale
"Sonnet 129/ To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell."
Digital Arts | Several sizes
Not For Sale
"Sonnet 130 / My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun."
Digital Arts | Several sizes
Not For Sale
SafeSearch
"Sonnet 131/ Thy black is fairest in my judgement’s place."
Digital Arts | Several sizes
Not For Sale
"Sonnet 132 / As those two mourning eyes become thy face."
Digital Arts | Several sizes
Not For Sale
"Sonnet 133 / Prison my heart in thy steel bosom’s ward."
Digital Arts | Several sizes
Not For Sale
"Sonnet 134 / For thou art covetous"
Digital Arts | Several sizes
Not For Sale
"Sonnet 135 / Shall will in others seem right gracious."
Digital Arts | Several sizes
Not For Sale
"Sonnet 136 / Make but my name thy love"
Digital Arts | Several sizes
Not For Sale
"Sonnet 137 / Fair truth upon so foul a face"
Digital Arts | Several sizes
Not For Sale
"Sonnet 138 / Age in love, loves not to have years told"
A set of nine, palimpsest, digital images and associated, unique prints made over a number of months[...]
A set of nine, palimpsest, digital images and associated, unique prints made over a number of months while walking around Tokyo during the build up to the 2020 (2021) Olympic Games. Stylistically, they imitate traditional, Japanese woodcut prints. However, the imagery is contemporary, chaotic, and often incomprehensible. The sizing format is 4x3 for printing on paper, canvas or glass.
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Biography
Wilf Tilley (Prof. Michael W. Miller) was born in the North of England and began his career as an actor, age 16, with the National Youth Theatre at The Old Vic in a production of Antony and Cleopatra in which Helen Mirren played Cleopatra and he carried a spear. “Wilf Tilley” (a combination of parental names) was part-adopted for a first solo exhibition at the AIR Gallery, London, when he was 27. Following an MA degree at the Royal College of Art, London, an interest in the neuro-anatomical drawings of Leonardo da Vinci led, via the Open University, to research on neuronal modelling in the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics in the University of Oxford. He was a Fellow of St. Catherine's College, Oxford, and after a two-year Fellowship in the International Center for Medical Research, Kobe, was a founder member, then senior adviser at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute, where he designed a brain science exploratorium (BrainBox). Wilf has held eight solo exhibitions, participated in group exhibitions internationally, and held a first retrospective in Japan (The Neuro-mytheologian And Other Works), in 2003. A novel (The Ladyboy Murders) was shortlisted for the Impress Prize for New Writers in 2015. In November/December 2017, he held a second retrospective at the Frederick Harris Gallery, Tokyo. And a recent portrait (Manami-san) is part of the New Light Art Prize Exhibition in the UK, touring five galleries nationally (2023-2024).
Latest News
All the latest news from contemporary artist Wilf Tilley
Added Sep 19, 2023
New Light Prize Exhibition
UK
Saturday30September2023
Saturday21December2024
New Light Prize Exhibition touring five locations in the UK including London. The portrait, "Manami 2023", shown on this website is part of the exhibition.
The portrait painting listed on this site, Satomi 2020 #1, will be part of this exhibition touring four galleries in the UK, and finishing at the Bankside Gallery in London in late November 2021.
Hello, Wilf. I love the works of the Marquises and Marquesas of the Renaissance, the still lifes, the portraits, all the pieces. They are magnificently refined and I congratulate you on your classical work. If you want, you can visit my site on Art-major, where you will find the homage to Japan, the ancestor of the Samurai and the ancestor of the most famous sword in Japan. Poetic thoughts. Sam de Beauregard. .
Bonsoir Wilf, j' adore tes oeuvres tes Marquis et Marquises, de la Renaissance ,ta nature morte, tes portraits, toutes tes créations. qui sont peaufinées magistralement,et je te félicite pour tes créations classiques. Si tu veux bien , tu peux aller visiter mon site sur Art-majeur, tu y trouveras un Hommage au Japon,ancestral sur les Samouraïs et sur le sabre, le plus prestigieux du Japon : Le HONJO MASAMUNE; Pensées Poétiques . Sam de Beauregard.
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