Bernard Williams

Bernard Williams investigates the complexities of American history and culture through painting, sculpture, and installation. Within these broad arenas, the work seeks a kind of open-ended dialogue, addressing identity, flattening hierarchies, and questioning who we are collectively. Risk, adventure, conquest, personal status, privilege, and mechanical development are some of the thematic concepts which are pushed into form.

Williams’s work has been exhibited Booth Museum (GA), AB Contemporary (Switzerland), Woubonsee College (IL), Thomas McCormick Gallery (IL), Sideshow Gallery (NY), Exit Art (NY), Laumeier Sculpture Park (MO), and Iceberg Project (IL), among others. He has received numerous awards and grants, including the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Award, the Meier Foundation Award, an Illinois Arts Counci Grant, and an ARTADIA grant, among others. He has been an artist-in-residence at Cooper Union (NY), EDGE (CA), Fine Arts Workshop Center (MA), the International Studio and Curatorial Program (NY), and John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s Arts/Industry at Kohler Co. (WI), among others.

Williams earned his BFA from University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, his MFA from Northwestern University, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.