Artist Joe Fenwick Wilson

Joe’s work celebrates the uniqueness and strangeness of the normal

Joe Fenwick-Wilson was born in 1993 in Rugby, Warwickshire. After many years as an outside artist, he went to study fine art at the prestigious Falmouth University. He has lived in different places across England, but is now based in Cambridgeshire where he has his studio at St Barnabas Press (Cambridge).

His paintings and drawings are inspired by the mundaneness of happenings and objects from the day to day. He often uses repetition as he likes to push drawing until it becomes as mechanical as writing one’s name. Also inspired by patterns and rituals, Joe’s work celebrates the uniqueness and strangeness of the normal. He attempts to create an entrance to his work through identifiable objects and actions; this allows the viewer to reflect on their own rituals and relationships with the forgettable yet important things in their lives.

The skateboarding movement in Cambridge attempts to be completely all encompassing. In the almost 2 years that I have been here I have met some incredible people. A skateboard community is about creativity, progression and friendship and has the potential to be a hub for people with talents across the spectrum. A community like this needs a place to progress, unfortunately in Cambridge there is a lack of funding to help the community grow. There is no skate shop, which is ridiculous when you look at the size of the skate scene. There is no state of the art park in a central location and there is no where to go in the winter months.

On top of this, when people have built DIY spots in unused locations out of desperation, they have been torn down. I feel as though is important to nurture all forms of learning, whether it is in sports or the arts. Cambridge council should take advice from collectives like ‘Cam Skate’ on how to move forward with these things in the future. Skateboarding is a shared art form and community that teaches its participants incomparable lessons about failure, success, passion and hard work and I believe strongly that it shouldn’t be ignored.

Listen to the podcast Cambridge Arts Round Up Episode 44