Bio
Martin Williams has been connected with visual communication all his life. He has studied at various art schools including Bondi/Waverley Art School and Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School, beginning at NAS in 2019. At the age of seventeen at the Edinburgh Festival in creating art with members of Cambridge University Footlights, and in following the art of Bridget Riley and Alberto Burri, he saw his first art sales. As a student at Glasgow College of Printing he became publicity convenor of the Glasgow Students Appeal, creating their posters and magazine covers. Intending a career in art, he was sponsored on a post graduate at Liverpool Polytechnic after which he pursued a successful marketing and then advertising career in the UK, Switzerland and Italy creating ideas for press, radio and in film, working with luminaries including Ridley Scott, Alan Parker, Hugh Hudson, and Keith Ewart, in then evolving video.
In migrating to Australia in 1981 he started his own agencies and created campaigns where he placed creative emphasis on storytelling, including creative ideas for Apple and Microsoft which presaged the proliferation of new narrative forms—in targeted mass press, cinema, and TV response advertising and ultimately social media that now pervades almost all aspects of everyday life. In 1997 he authored text “Interactive Marketing” and was awarded Direct Marketer of the Year. In 2002 Martin reinvented himself gaining a Doctorate and switching into academia, teaching marketing and advertising communications at MGSM and UTS for fifteen years, while channeling his expertise in fundraising with pro-bono appointments with the Salvation Army and Sydney Medical School Foundation.
1966-1967 Laureston Hall, Cambridge Footlights. Edinburgh Festival.
1969 “Ygorra Magasine” cover design, Glasgow Students Charities Appeal publicity
1969 Gradated Glasgow College of Printing
1971 Graduated Liverpool Polytechnic, and Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
1979 Fellow of Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM)
1981 Migrated to Australia arriving in Sydney in September
1985 Co-founded agency Cartwright Williams Pty Ltd.
1997 Direct Marketer of the Year, Australian Direct Marketing Association, and authored “Interactive Marketing” 2nd edition Prentice Hall.
2005 Ray Hughes “Bondi Artists” Joint Exhibition.
2008 Doctorate Macquarie University (MGSM) and full-time academic, University of Technology Sydney.
2007 Tom Bass Studio Sculpture School Joint Exhibition.
2009 Bondi/Waverley Palette Group Auction Show.
2010 Bondi Art School Joint Summer Exhibition.
2011 Tom Bass Studio Sculpture School, Joint Exhibition, Directors’ Prize.
2015 Sculptors Society, Concourse Chatswood 'Horse Warrior' after Marini.
2015 Tom Bass Studio Sculpture School, Joint Exhibition, Certificate of Recognition 'Horse Warrior' after Marini.
2017 Tom Bass Studio Sculpture School Joint Exhibition, Directors’ Choice'.
2019 Al Nassar Marble Sculptor School at TBSS
2020 Sculptors Society, Incinerator, Willoughby 'Exuberance', and 'Waiting for Rosalie Gascoigne'.
2021 National Art School Residency, Hill End, January.
2022 Residency Hill End. Group show Hill End, 'NAS Hillenders," February.
2022 Finalist Tom Bass Prize. Juniper Hall, Sydney. 'Waiting for Rosalie Gascoigne'.
2022 Tom Bass Studio Sculpture School Joint Exhibition, Highly Recommended.
2022 Finalist Sculpture in the Garden, Mudgee, Joint Exhibition, 'Exuberance #2'.
2023 Finalist Clyde Art Prize, NAS Chapel Blues 3, The Trinity, Sydney.
2023 Finalist Gallipoli Memorial Art Prize, Middle head defences. The Rocks, Sydney.
Academic papers in art:
2018 Williams, M., & Biggemann, S. Corporate Art Collections in Australia. The Influence of Aboriginal Art on Corporate Identity. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488420958112
2019 Williams, M., Biggeman, S., & Toth, Z. Value creation in art galleries: A service logic analysis. Australasian Marketing Journal. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ausmj.2019.08.002
2022 Toth, Z., Biggemann, S., & Williams, M. Unintentionality in market shaping – A multiple case study of touring exhibitions from New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom. Industrial Marketing Management 103:117129 10.1016/j.indmarman.2022.03.012
