William Versace

William Versace is a contemporary visual artist whose transdisciplinary practices include painting, sculpture, photo media and installation works. A skilled craftsman, Versace becomes engrossed in the technologies of the materials he works with. Each work is highly conceptualised before the making, which he does in collaboration with ‘place’. An avid environmentalist, his knowledge of herbology and horticulture underpins his passion for illuminating the human impact on the natural world. Grounded in place, he often creates work on and with local biology, taking compositions from sea life, eroding forms using water droplets from rockfaces, or corroding surfaces using elemental forces. By enshrining the organic process found within the natural world, Versace calls into question the anthropogenic dialectics of human-to-place, exploring the preservatory landscape and commenting on what our future artefacts may look like.

 William Versace is a multimodal visual artist working from Gadigal lands in Sydney. Versace identifies as a queer, first-generation Australian with strong ties to his Calabrian Italian heritage. In 2019, he graduated from the University of Technology with a double degree in Industrial Design and Creative Intelligence and Innovation. For several years, Versace worked alongside Louise Olsen to realise her designs and concepts, acquiring the skills he implored in making his artwork. Versace has been represented by Curatorial+Co. since 2019 and has been a finalist in several prestigious art prizes, including the 2024 Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize, the 2023 Northern Beaches Environmental Art Prize, and Sculptures in the Valley.

Photo: Lu Deverall