Biography

Will Coles is best known for his defiant and accessible take on street art – sculptures that bring together pop and conceptual aesthetics. These familiar yet unsettling works surprise and delight people in cities across the world as they go about their day. By embedding dissonant words and sentences into his concrete casts of seemingly banal objects, his work uses dark humour to provide a commentary on modern society, taking on issues like consumerism or environmental destruction. Whilst a lot of his work falls into this street art movement, many of his pieces can also be found in private and public collections. Most of his work though, is unaccounted for, as – despite the strength of the glue used – his public sculptures are highly desired and regularly stolen! Born in Warwickshire, Will grew up in the Suffolk countryside. His grandfather, Norman Sillman, was a sculptor so he had easy access to modern and classical art and art theory when he was growing up. Will spent several years at Ravensbourne, Wimbledon & Glasgow Schools of Art before moving to Sydney, Australia in the early 90s. He’s now based somewhere in Europe.