Billy Childish (b. 1959, Chatham, Kent, United Kingdom; lives and works in Whitstable, Kent) is known for his introspective, autobiographical, and deeply emotional paintings, writing, and music. After leaving secondary school at age 16, Childish worked at the Naval Dockyard in Chatham as an apprentice stonemason. Initially denied an interview to the local art school, he produced hundreds of drawings that gained him entry to London’s Saint Martin's School of Art. Childish's defiance of authority led to his eventual expulsion from art school in 1981. Since then, Childish has gained something of a cult status worldwide, writing and publishing five novels and more than 40 volumes of confessional poetry, recording more than 150 LPs, and painting several hundred works. Through all of these disciplines, Childish addresses social, political, and personal issues such as war, protest, his turbulent childhood, and his struggles with addiction. While his confessional poetry and music explore these issues with startling honesty, Childish’s paintings are more subtle. His subjects are often drawn from his environment or are people he knows or admires: birch forests, self-portraits, a lone figure in a pastoral English landscape, and his wife as a reclining female nude. Childish works quickly and intuitively, making spare marks on raw canvas that leave much of it visible. He identifies with artists who worked outside a group or movement, intrigued by their outsider roles in society, such as Vincent van Gogh, Kurt Schwitters, and Edvard Munch. Labeling himself a “radical traditionalist,” Childish has a reverence for traditional oil painting yet has resolutely resisted any connection with a particular group or artistic movement.
Childish attended Medway College of Design, Kent in 1977 and Saint Martin’s School of Art, London in 1978. Solo exhibitions of his work have been organized at Rochester Art Gallery, Kent, United Kingdom (2016); Opelvillen Rüsselsheim, Frankfurt, Germany (2016); White Columns, New York (2010); and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London (2010). Select group exhibitions featuring his work include BILLY CHILDISH, HARRY ADAMS and EDGEWORTH JOHNSTONE: Our Friend Larionov, Pushkin House, London (2014); Paintings Sweet Paintings, Neuer Aachener Kunstverein, Aache, Germany (2014); and British Art Show 5, City Art Centre, Edinburgh (2000).
比利·查爾迪斯（1959年生於英國肯特查塔姆）十六歲離開中學後，開始在查塔姆海軍船廠當石匠學徒。查爾迪起初未能得到當地藝術學院的面試機會。後來，他創作過百幅繪畫作品考進聖馬丁藝術學院，可是蔑視權威的態度使他在1981年被開除學籍。查爾迪斯隨後展開其藝術生涯，探索戰爭、歷史和社會抗爭等普世主題。在過去的三十五年間，查爾迪斯在國際的知名度不斷提升。他出版了超過四十冊詩歌和五本小說，又灌錄了過百張唱片專輯及創作了過百幅油畫。 查爾迪斯現於英國肯特定居及從事藝術創作。
查爾迪斯曾先後於1977年和1978年在英國肯特Medway College of Design及倫敦中央聖馬汀藝術設計學院讀書。他曾在多個畫廊及美術館舉行個人展覽，包括英國肯特羅切斯特美術館（2016年）、德國法蘭克福呂塞爾斯海姆特色博物館（2016年）、美國紐約White Columns（2010年）及英國倫敦當代藝術學院（2010年）。他亦曾參與多個群體展覽，包括倫敦Pushkin House的「BILLY CHILDISH, HARRY ADAMS and EDGEWORTH JOHNSTONE: Our Friend Larionov」（2014年）、德國亞琛的「Paintings Sweet Paintings」（2014年）及愛丁堡城市藝術中心的「British Art Show 5」（2000年）。