Billy Chainsaw is a contemporary Pop Artist whose work uses a fertile mix of pulp and the arcane to engage with ideas of mortality, magick and sensuality.
With his up-cycling of ceramics and his on-canvas appropriation of pop and cult iconography, his is a transformative art. Working with paints, screen prints, photographs and decals, Chainsaw has developed a personal armoury of imagery and gestural approaches which are instantly recognisable yet seemingly open to
infinite experimentation.

Chainsaw says he has no interest in perfection. He's far more passionate about the ragged edges, the uneven surface and the traces of previous mistakes. All of which combine to provide the volatile seedbed of his works. At the heart of all his art – be it ceramic, canvas or beyond – is a painstaking process of layering.

Death always looms large in Chainsaw's works. And yet – despite the sombre nature of much of the source material – his work frequently strikes a playful note, managing to effortlessly imbue his pieces with a strong sense of energy and light. Chainsaw cites the notorious beat generation author William S. Burroughs as his ‘ghost muse'. Burroughs is an artist who emerged from the counter culture to assume a totemic presence within the mainstream. Like Salvador Dali, The Ramones or Frida Kahlo, Burroughs' visual image is recognised even by those unacquainted with his artistic output. The US experimental author has long been a touchstone for Chainsaw, but not just as a poster boy for those who prefer their artists spattered with the markings of the outlaw. Rather, Chainsaw grapples with some of the deeper themes running through Burroughs' work. Ideas such as art being a magickal tool and an instrument of change, or notions of death and decay having their own special beauty.