Artist Spotlight: Felix Treadwell

This week we take a look at the whimsical works of Felix Treadwell.

Born in Maidstone, UK in 1992, Treadwell completed his dream move to Taipei, Taiwan, where he now lives and works. From a young age, he exhibited a keen interest in drawing, and these early years proved particularly formative in the development of his style. He channelled his creative spirit into a BFA at the Camberwell College of Arts and then a MFA at the RCA — where his talent really began to shine through.

Treadwell draws inspiration from manga, traditional Japanese printmaking, and fashion blogs from the 2000s, using these influences to create new worlds populated by the characters we know him for today. In a nod to the fabricated realities that Treadwell grew up on, the artist has mastered an otherworldly aesthetic devoid of space and time. His subjects, centred around a protagonist called Feelo, carry a certain indeterminacy with them, as they inhabit endless, though non-threatening, vacant spaces.

The soft pastel hues and gentle use of spray and acrylic invokes a sense of childlike innocence and a hypnotic quality that leaves you with a sense of melancholic longing for the fleeting years of youth. In staying true to the fearless curiosity of juvenescence, Treadwell conveys everything from internet culture, fantasy, anxiety, hope, and prehistory, and we can’t wait to see where he takes us next.

Treadwill’s solo exhibition, The Wanderer, will open at Dopeness Art Lab on 14 January 2024.

Felix Treadwell: “I guess, in my work, I have always been returning to my childhood or youth and looking at longing for something I wished or wanted to have, and looking at how nostalgia affects one.”

Photos courtesy of Carl Kostyál.