“My work is concerned with perception, the nature and interpretation of reality. I use subtle modulations of light and shade to create surfaces reminiscent of photography, spatially ambiguous, reflecting some other reality. I seek to re-examine the relationship between what we see and what we know, between emphirical fact and deduction, reality and illusion.”

- Mervyn Williams, Artist statement in Contemporary Painting in New Zealand by Michael Dunn, 1996.