John and June Allcott Gallery: Antoine Williams, Something in the Way of Things

Reception: September 12^th, 5-7 pm with gallery talk at 6 pm

Artist Statement:

My interdisciplinary practice utilizes critical studies and the surreal to explore ways in which Black physical, mental, and emotional states of being exist within and subvert the status-quo.

I work with the notion of society as monstrous to question themes of power and class within their social, cultural, and political absurdities. Artworks act as ledgers documenting societal infractions. My work sits at the intersection of speculative fiction, monster theory, surrealism, and critical race theory. The result is a process-based practice involving installation, painting, drawing, collage, assemblage, and sound. I use materiality and concept to weave futures, archives, radical imagining into speculative economies that investigate the complexities of contemporary Black life.

Biography:

Antoine Williams is an interdisciplinary artist who is heavily influenced by speculative fiction, critical Black studies and his working-class upbringing in Red Springs, North Carolina. Antoine received his BFA from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and his MFA from UNC at Chapel Hill. He has exhibited in several places, including at Smack Mellon Brooklyn, the Nasher Museum of Art, Columbia Museum of Art, 21c Museum, Elsewhere Museum, Prizm Art Fair, The McColl Center of Art and Innovation, the California Museum of Photography as well as many other venues. He has taken part in residencies at The Center for Afrofuturist Studies, The Hambidge Center, and the Joan Mitchel Residency in New Orleans. Williams was also a part of the 2021 Drawing Center viewing program. He is a recipient of the 2017 Joan Mitchell Award for Painters and Sculptors, 2018 Harpo Foundation Grant Award, and the 2022 National Academy of Art Abbey Mural Prize. His work is in the collection of the Nasher Museum of Art and the North Carolina Museum of Art. Williams is an assistant professor of Drawing in the Expanded Field at the University of Florida.

Admission: Free
Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday, 8 am-5 pm

A weeknight or daytime permit is now required after 5:00 pm on weekdays. There is no permit needed from 5:00 pm Friday through 7:30 am Monday. A $1.00 one-night pass is available in selected lots. More information can be found at Weeknight Parking.

Artist website: https://antoinewilliamsart.com/home.html

Image credit: A Moment of Rest While Convincing Monsters That I Am Human, Ink on vellum, 20” x 20”