Sephaville 2006 – 2023

Beyond the end of the railroad, at the mouth of the river, lies Sephaville…

In his series Sephaville, Will Teather introduces the viewer to a series of characters, locations and motifs which are self-contained and self-referencing. In his large scale canvases, gulls fly around harlequins, whilst the Gothic architecture looms stoically in the background. Teather’s work is arresting, heart-stopping and exquisitely executed. 

Laura Williams, art historian and curator

On my first encounter with Will Teather’s paintings from the early Sephaville series I felt a strong emotional recognition, drawn into his dreamy worlds with their sharply -focused Magritte-like clarity. They seem to represent transitory moments captured from a filmic narrative, a telescopic time-hop into late 19th century European visual sensibility. His minimal carnivalesque palettes of bright primaries shine through a patina, apparently muted by layers of Time’s residue. It is enjoyable to imagine what other sensory elements may be implied; the rustle of taffeta, sounds of windmill sails turning slowly, a distant church bell, birds in flight, steam locomotives, a waltz melody, changing weather in a world where gravity has been altered, and the smell of smoke from a Magic Lantern Phantasmagorie Show.

Professor Suzie Hanna