William Stransky

William Stransky is a West Australian artist whose practice was significantly shaped by more than a decade living and working in southern Japan. Relocating there in 1989 as an English teaching assistant, Stransky became deeply immersed in Japanese culture, developing an interest in calligraphy, ceramics, textiles, ikebana and the seasonal rural landscape.

He began painting in Japan and held his first exhibition in Yatsushiro in 1995. Throughout the 1990s, he participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions across Japan, with works exhibited at the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art and Kumamoto Prefectural Museum of Art, as well as galleries and independent exhibition spaces.

Stransky returned to Perth in 2004 and continued to develop his painting practice. A significant shift occurred in 2013, with the emergence of a highly expressive abstract style characterised by vibrant colour, layered surfaces, scratched motifs and bold, calligraphic gestures. His work was presented in Big Brush at Kurb Gallery in 2013 and Backyard Twist at the Moores Building, Fremantle, in 2016.

More recent works explore a quieter and increasingly geometric visual language, drawing on the forms of Australian domestic architecture, including verandas, louvred windows and flyscreen doors. These works combine structure and abstraction with a more contemplative exploration of place, memory and solitude.

Stransky's practice explores place, memory, gesture and abstraction, evolving from his early engagement with Japanese aesthetics and landscape to expressive abstraction and, more recently, geometric and contemplative compositions. His work combines colour, texture, line and architectural references to create a distinctive visual language that moves between spontaneity and structure.