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KENT WILLIAMS

  
  
  
  

About Kent Williams


Kent Williams has built up a formidable reputation as a powerful contemporary draftsman and painter. His is a bold realist with combined attributes of abstraction and neo-expressionistic sensibilities. His work is characterized by strong gestural forms combined with areas of layered and arresting detail, rendered with rich dynamic brushwork.
Williams’ approach to his subjects is often subjective and intense. Whether through multi-figured compositional complexity and suggestive narrative, or with the straight-forward lone human form, there is often autobiographical narrative at play. Favorite models, friends, and the artist himself all play a role in the human story of his paintings.
Williams lives in Los Angeles. He has two sons, Kerig Sun and Ian Kai.

Storytelling (Kent Williams 1 of 3)

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“There are precedents for such contrasting formal languages occurring within a single painting (or, as in the case of Gerhard Richter, occurring within a single oeuvre)... Larry Rivers’ proto-pop painterliness zoomed in and out of focus and scattered his subjects around the compositions they occupy. Salvador Dalí and Yves Tanguy, among other surrealists, blurred the line between the optically credible and the physically impossible. Gustav Klimt enveloped his sensuous, stylized figures in swaths and curtains of pattern. Victorian academicians, British and American, as diverse as John Singer Sargent, James McNeill Whistler, and Frederick Lord Leighton, combined emphatically hyper-realistic passages – faces and details of clothing, for instance – with much more painterly areas surrounding them. The later mural-size paintings of J. M. W. Turner (in uncanny anticipation of photography’s liberating effect on painting) deposited heroic figures in the midst of all-but- disintegrated land- and seascapes. Williams acknowledges these influences to various degrees.
Williams is a worthy inheritor of these august forerunners, technically gifted and spiritually motivated, as they were, by the acts of painting and drawing themselves. He participates in a dynamic, polemical, historically self-conscious resuscitation of representational painting currently occurring throughout the United States, and nowhere more than in southern California, where Williams currently lives and works. Painters like Williams are clearly attached to a tradition but compelled to advance it by embracing contrary traditions – abstraction, surrealism, naturalism – and by inventing a cohesive, if deliberately unstable, whole. Unstable neither in its actual imagery nor in its painterly practice, Kent Williams’ art distinguishes itself for its fully reasoned method and its particular, often unique, characteristics. But it is unstable – thrillingly, potently unstable – in its acceptance of contradictory visual languages and its ability to orchestrate those languages into a pictorially and discursively vibrant way of painting the human condition.”

–Peter Frank From the exhibition catalog, Kent Williams: Native Bone and Far to Home, Davidson College, 2015

Selected Awards and Honors


Yellow Kid; Lucca, Italy's prestigious comics award
Fellowship at the Sundance Filmmakers Lab in Sundance, UT, 2001

Education


The Pratt Institute, New York

Available Work


Kent Williams, Full Magenta
Full Magenta
watercolor and mixed media on paper, 17.5" x 15"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Blue Glamour
Blue Glamour
watercolor and mixed media on paper, 15" x 17.5"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Corvus Quietus: Ritual
Corvus Quietus: Ritual
oil on linen, 48" x 36"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Corvus Quietus 2
Corvus Quietus 2
oil on wood panel, 24" x 24"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Post Ritual
Post Ritual
oil on linen, 48" x 60"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Ouroboros
Ouroboros
oil on linen, 24" x 18"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Corvus 12
Corvus 12
mixed media on paper, 18" x 24"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Convergence Yumiko
Convergence Yumiko
oil on linen, 60" x 60"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Self-portrait as Rodin's Striding Man
Self-portrait as Rodin's Striding Man, with Appendages
oil on linen, diptych, 84" x 144"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Rockets' Red Glare
Rockets’ Red Glare
oil on linen, 50" x 74"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Mongo
Mongo
oil on claybord, 20" x 20"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Hike Thru Bailey Canyon
Hike Thru Bailey Canyon
oil on claybord, 36" x 36"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Raffia Crown
Raffia Crown 2
mixed media on paper, 22" x 17"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Mixed Arrangement
Mixed Arrangement
mixed media on paper, 22" x 17"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Aqua Star (study)
Aqua Star (study)
mixed media on paper, 22" x 18"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Shunga Remnants
Shunga Remnants
oil and fiberglass on wood panel, 36" x 36"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Saiho-ji: Passage through the Moss Temple Gardens
Saiho-ji: Passage through the Moss Temple Gardens
oil on canvas, 36" x 36"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Native Bone: Heart
Native Bone: Heart
oil on linen, 24" x 20"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Hold Still
Hold Still
oil on canvas, 27" x 29"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Plate Glass Window: Typhoon
Plate Glass Window: Typhoon
oil on linen, 24" x 24"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Incognito
Incognito
oil on canvas, 48" x 48"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Laetitia
Laetitia
oil on canvas, 20" x 20"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Then
Then
mixed media on paper 22" x 17" CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Tie Dye
Tie Dye
oil on linen, 24" x 20"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, The Mayan
The Mayan
oil on linen, 28" x 22"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Yellow Tassels
Yellow Tassels
mixed media on paper, 22" x 17"CLICK FOR INQUIRY
Kent Williams, Strings and Rope
Strings and Rope
mixed media on paper, 17" x 14"
Kent Williams, Ouroboros (study)
Ouroboros (study)
mixed media on paper, 24" x 18"
Kent Williams, Blue Point
Blue Point
mixed media on paper, 22" x 17"
Kent Williams, Porcelin Stance
Porcelain Stance
mixed media on paper, 17" x 14"
Kent Williams, Asleep
Asleep
mixed media on paper, 20" x 24"
Kent Williams, Ragalia
Ragalia
mixed media on paper, 24" x 18"
Kent Williams, Tracy with Love
Tracy with Love
oil on linen, 30" x 40"
Kent Williams, She Wore Lemon
She Wore Lemon
oil on canvas, 36" x 36"
Kent Williams, Palm Wing
Palm Wing
mixed media on paper, 24" x 18"
Kent Williams, Corvus 11
Corvus 11
mixed media on paper, 18" x 24"
Kent Williams, In Love 2
In Love 2
pencil on paper, 14" x 11"
Kent Williams, Porcelin with Orange
Porcelain with Orange
oil on linen, 20" x 16"
Kent Williams, Adjunct with Pink and Yellow
Adjunct with Pink and Yellow
mixed media on paper, 17" x 18"
Kent Williams, Crossed
Crossed, 2016
mixed media on paper 22" x 17"
Kent Williams, Corvus Quietus
Corvus Quietus
oil on canvas, 20" x 20"
Kent Williams, Raven II
Raven II
oil on linen, 20" x 24"
Kent Williams, Paradise Bound 1
Paradise Bound 1
mixed media on paper, 22" x 17"
Kent Williams, Romantique
Romantique
oil on canvas, 48" x 48"
Kent Williams, With Klimt Looking On
With Klimt Looking On
oil on linen, 76" x 67"
Kent Williams, Still Life with Vases and Organic Matter
Still Life with Vases and Organic Matter
oil on canvas, 24" x 24"
Kent Williams, Repose with Gold & Red
Repose with Gold & Red
mixed media on paper, 17" x 24"
Kent Williams, Cat
Cat
mixed media on paper, 10" x 15"
Kent Williams, Raven
Raven
oil on linen, 24" x 36"
Kent Williams, Stare at Me: Out from the Madding Crowd
Stare at Me: Out from the Madding Crowd
oil on claybord, 36" x 36"
Kent Williams, Tomorrow
Tomorrow
oil on linen, 48" x 48"
Kent Williams, Cat
Cat
mixed media on paper, 10" x 15"
Kent Williams, Osseous Matter, Crown
Osseous Matter, Crown
oil on clayboard, 18" x 24"
Kent Williams, In Love 1
In Love 1
pencil on paper, 14" x 11"
Kent Williams, In Love 3
In Love 3
pencil on paper, 14" x 11"
Kent Williams, Cool with Red
Cool with Red
oil on clayboard, 24" x 18"
Kent Williams, Vases: Ensor
Vases: Ensor
oil on canvas, 60" x 60"
Kent Williams, The Reveal, triptych
The Reveal, triptych
mixed media on paper, 17" x 42"
Kent Williams, Kaonashi
Kaonashi
mixed media on paper, 17" x 14"
Kent Williams, Ukio
Ukiyo
oil on canvas, 54" x 50"
Kent Williams, Ukio, study
Ukio, study
mixed media on paper, 18" x 24"
Kent Williams, Devons Back
Devon's Back
oil on canvas, 50" x 60"
Kent Williams, Ultima Blonde Natalia
Ultima Blonde Natalia
oil on canvas, 29" x 27"
Kent Williams, Topsy Turvy
Topsy Turvy
mixed media on paper, 21" x 19"
Kent Williams, Headdress
Headdress
mixed media on paper, 18" x 17"
Kent Williams, In Profile, study
In Profile, study
mixed media on paper, 23" x 19"
Kent Williams, Upright
Upright
mixed media on paper, 17" x 14"
Kent Williams, Asilomar
Asilomar
oil on canvasr, 65" x 82"
Kent Williams, Tilt
Tilt
mixed media on paper, 17" x 14"
Kent Williams, Soldier of Peace
Soldier of Peace
oil on canvasr, 24" x 24"
Kent Williams, Planetary Dress, study
Planetary Dress, study
mixed media on paper, 18" x 18"
Kent Williams, Planetary Dress
Planetary Dress
oil on canvasr, 20" x 16"
Kent Williams, Osseous Matter
Osseous Matter
oil on canvasr, 28" x 24"
Kent Williams, Osseous Matter, 1
Osseous Matter, 1
mixed media on paper, 19" x 16"
Kent Williams, Osseous Matter, 2
Osseous Matter, 2
mixed media on paper, 21" x 18"
Kent Williams, Osseous Matter, 3
Osseous Matter, 3
mixed media on paper, 16" x 21"
Kent Williams, Onezee with Unicorn Hat
Onezee with Unicorn Hat
mixed media on paper, 24" x 18"
Kent Williams, Repose with Blue and Rose
Repose with Blue and Rose
mixed media on paper, 18" x 24"
Kent Williams, Convergence: Yumi
Convergence: Yumi
oil on canvas, 60" x 60"
Kent Williams, Nude Sitting
Nude Sitting
mixed media on paper, 22" x 17"
Kent Williams, New Year
New Year
mixed media on paper, 24" x 18"
Kent Williams, Natalie Standing
Natalia Standing
oil on canvas, 20" x 16"
Kent Williams, The Reveal, study 2
The Reveal, study 2
mixed media on paper, 14" x 17"
Kent Williams, Lover(s)
Lover(s)
mixed media on paper, 17" x 22"
Kent Williams, Lil'Bit Contemplative
Lil'Bit Contemplative
pencil, charcoal and gouache on paper, 17" x 20"
Kent Williams, Sultry
Sultry
mixed media on paper, 15" x 21"
Kent Williams, Sea Foam
Sea Foam
mixed media on paper, 18" x 24"
Kent Williams, Floral with Pink
Floral with Pink
pencil, charcoal, gouache on paper, 24" x 18"
Kent Williams, Blossomy
Blossomy
oil on canvas, 60" x 70"
Kent Williams, Blond Natalia Again
Blond Natalia Again
oil on panel, 16" x 16"
Kent Williams, Blonde Natalia Paint Can
Blonde Natalia, Paint Can and Orange Electric Cord
oil on canvas, 14" x 14"
Kent Williams, Crawl
Crawl
mixed media on paper, 14" x 17"
Kent Williams, Lord of The Flies, 2
Lord of The Flies, 2
mixed media on paper, 17" x 14"
Kent Williams, Lord of The Flies, 4
Lord of The Flies, 4
mixed media on paper, 17" x 14"
Kent Williams, Lord of The Flies, 6
Lord of The Flies, 6
mixed media on paper, 17" x 14"
Kent Williams, Lord of The Flies, 7
Lord of The Flies, 7
mixed media on paper, 17" x 14"
Kent Williams, Erotica
Erotica
mixed media on paper, 30" x 44"
Kent Williams, 1962, study
1962, study
mixed media on paper, 24" x 18"
Kent Williams, Quilt Wrap
Quilt Wrap
mixed media on paper, 24" x 18"
Kent Williams, Disposition
Disposition
oil on canvas, 48" x 34"
Kent Williams, Warm with Red
Warm with Red
mixed media on paper, 17 x 14
Kent Williams, Alternate Figure Study Blue Rose, 1
Alternate Figure study Blue Rose, 1
pencil, charcoal, and gouache on paper, 14" x 17"
Kent Williams, Alternate Figure Study Blue Rose, 2
Alternate Figure study Blue Rose, 2
pencil, charcoal, and gouache on paper, 17" x 14"
Kent Williams, Girl with Glasses
Girl with Glasses
mixed media on paper, 20" x 17"
Kent Williams, Portal
Portal
mixed media on paper, 20" x 18"