Kent Williams

Primarily a figurative painter, Williams' work explores, in both bold and subtle ways, and often through a suggestion of narrative and woven symbolism, the thread of life that ties us together as human beings. Embracing our virtues while not shying away from our faults, he shows us portraits of ourselves, intense and penetrating.

A graduate of The Pratt Institute in New York, Williams, a consummate draftsman and painter, has realized his work through various other artistic channels as well; that of the illustrated word and the graphic novel (most recently, THE FOUNTAIN with filmmaker Darren Aronofsky), printmaking, photography, design, architecture, and film. A selection of his works on paper, KENT WILLIAMS: DRAWINGS & MONOTYPES, was published in 1991, and KOAN: PAINTINGS BY JON J MUTH & KENT WILLIAMS, was published in 2001. His most recent book, KENT WILLIAMS, AMALGAM: PAINTINGS & DRAWINGS, 1992-2007 is the most comprehensive collection of Williams' work to date. Williams is the recipient of a number of awards for his work including The Yellow Kid; Lucca, Italy's prestigious comics award. In 2001 he was invited to be a fellow at the Sundance Filmmakers Lab in Sundance, UT.

Williams returned as a visiting instructor to The Pratt Institute, and has since gone on to teach at The California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA; East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, and The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Valencia, CA. He currently teaches contemporary figurative painting at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA, and is Mentor Faculty at Laguna College of Art and Design, Laguna Beach, CA as part of the MFA program.