Kiyan Williams

Kiyan Williams is an American visual artist who works across a range of media, including sculpture, performance, and installation.[1] By revisiting public sculpture[2] and national symbols,[3] Williams creates artworks that subvert dominant narratives of history, power, and American identity.[4] Williams lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.[5]

This article uses singular they.
Not to be confused with Kian Williams.
Kiyan Williams
Born
Newark, New Jersey
EducationStanford University, Columbia University
Websitehttp://www.kiyanwilliams.com/

Education

Kiyan Williams earned a BA with Honors from Stanford University and a MFA in Visual Arts from Columbia University.[6][7]

Artistic practice

Kiyan Williams is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice encompasses performance, sculpture, installation and media art, through which they subvert national symbols and traditional monumentality.[8] The artist adopts everyday materials and unconventional methods[9] to uproot the hegemonic narratives of domination that monuments typically celebrate. Embracing fragments and fissures, Williams’ works recall ancient ruins or relics in a state of decay that also hold capacities for resilience.[10] By making, unmaking, and remaking,[11] the artist creates embodied works that both fill historical gaps and question power dynamics. Soil, in particular, is a recurring material and metaphor that Williams uses to delve into American history and identity,[12] thus unearthing the historical and ongoing forces that have shaped, and tightly tied together, bodies and land.[13]

Exhibitions

Kiyan Williams' work has been presented in numerous museums and galleries, in the United States and worldwide, including notable exhibitions at Peres Projects, Milan, the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, the Brooklyn Museum, New York, David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles, the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, D.C., Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, and SculptureCenter, New York. In 2022, they presented a monumental sculpture in Brooklyn Bridge Park, commissioned by Public Art Fund.[14]

Solo exhibitions
  • A Past That Is Future Tense, Peres Projects, Milan, 2023[15]
  • A Crack Beneath the Weight of it All, Altman Siegel, San Francisco, 2023[16]
  • Hammer Projects: Kiyan Williams, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, 2022[17][18]
  • Un/earthing, Lyles and King, New York, 2022[19][20]
  • Reaching Towards Warmer Suns, The Anderson Collection, Stanford University, Palo Alto, 2021[21]
  • something else (Variations on Americana), Recess Art, New York, 2020[22]

Selected group exhibitions

Selected grants and residencies

Williams is the recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Graham Foundation Grant, Franklin Furnace Fund, and Fountainhead Fellowship in Sculpture and Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University.[27] Williams has been awarded residencies at Smack Mellon and BTFA.[28]

References
  1. "Kiyan Williams Puts the American Flag in a Frying Pan". www.culturedmag.com. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  2. September 26th; Antonucci, 2022 Marica. "Kiyan Williams, Unsettling the Histories of Public Sculpture". Monument Lab. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  3. Vogel, Wendy. "Wendy Vogel on Kiyan Williams". www.artforum.com. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  4. "Bio". Kiyan Williams. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  5. "CV". Kiyan Williams. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  6. "CV". Kiyan Williams. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  7. "How Artist Kiyan Williams Interrogates American History Through Mud". Them. 2023-04-21. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  8. September 26th; Antonucci, 2022 Marica. "Kiyan Williams, Unsettling the Histories of Public Sculpture". Monument Lab. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  9. "How Do You Properly Fry An American Flag". Kiyan Williams. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  10. "Kiyan Williams, Un/earthing, press release" (PDF).
  11. "THE MOON IS TRANS: ON CULTIVATING AN AESTHETICS OF REACHING Jeanne Vaccaro in conversation with P. Staff and Kiyan Williams". www.textezurkunst.de. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  12. "How Artist Kiyan Williams Interrogates American History Through Mud". Them. 2023-04-21. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  13. "BOMB Magazine | Forms That Don't Yet Exist: Kiyan Williams Interviewed". BOMB Magazine. 2021-11-10. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  14. "Black Atlantic". Public Art Fund. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  15. "A Past That Is Future Tense". Peres Projects. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  16. "Kiyan Williams: A Crack Beneath the Weight of It All | Altman Siegel". Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  17. "Hammer Projects: Kiyan Williams | Hammer Museum". hammer.ucla.edu. 2022-05-28. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  18. Guilford, Lauren (2022-06-02). "PICK OF THE WEEK: Kiyan Williams". Artillery Magazine. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  19. "Kiyan Williams - Un/earthing". Lyles & King. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  20. Dafoe, Taylor (2022-06-03). "Why This Artist Is Deep-Frying American Flags—and Inviting Guests to Bring Their Favorite Seasonings for the Batter". Artnet News. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  21. University, © Stanford; Stanford; California 94305. "Reaching Towards Warmer Suns | Anderson Collection at Stanford University". Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  22. admin (2020-09-11). "Kiyan Williams: something else (Variations on Americana)". Recess. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  23. "Full and Pure: Body, Materiality, Gender | June 10 - September 24, 2023". Green Family Art Foundation. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  24. "Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection". Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Smithsonian. 2023-07-26. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  25. "Black Atlantic". Public Art Fund. Retrieved 2023-07-26.
  26. "Black Atlantic". Public Art Fund. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
  27. "Kiyan Williams". The Shed. Retrieved 2020-09-08.
  28. "Artist Residency". BTFA Collective. Retrieved 2023-07-24.
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