Artist Statement
My name is Joshua Williams. I am a practicing visual artist working in drawing and painting.
My art practice focuses on creating 2D drawn and painted artifacts. I use a mix of gestural lines with application of paint on intentionally unevenly cut surfaces. The surfaces are often rough and fragmented. On these surfaces,I use a wide range of marks to create narratives and characters. The stories in my works focus on fusing the Ancient world with Contemporary culture. My process consists of doing preliminary sketches, cutting the surfaces to work on, and slowly building up layers with each material. I alternate between drawing and painting, changing the different art principles to fit a particular narrative. Hidden in each piece is writing referring to the subject matter in each work. Each work refers to different historical passages, whether they be myths, history, genealogies, allegories etc.My two biggest artistic influences are Hierynmos Bosch and Jean Michel Basquiat. Bosch for his maximall-istic amount of figures and integration of story. Basquiat influences my approach to form with his integration of text and image.
The meaning of my artifacts is achieved through “signs”. The works use symbols referring to a variety of cultures from across time and place, synthesizing them together. For example, there are references to the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East. The drawings refer to the elements of hip hop with graffiti marks and hip hop references. Further, a helpful framework to understand my work is the philosophy called “Structuralism”. Structuralism focuses on the way that symbols and ideas get repeated throughout the globe. Aside from the Ancient Near East, I refer to mythology and history from the Greco-Roman, Yoruba, and Japanese while also discussing facets of urban/inner city culture and Black history that relate to these subjects. I use the visual language from Graphic novels with exaggerated anatomy and illusions to the subjects. My work is about Cultural exchange, both in cross culture conflict and unity. It is about creating a unique visual language that can speak to people differently depending on their own cultural worldview.
Artist bio
I am an artist originally from Baltimore Maryland and Saint Louis Missouri. I am a graduate of Covenant College and currently a practicing visual artist. I have shown in multiple exhibitions across the country.
At Covenant, I worked in the intercultural program doing administrative and personal work for my school. In my time developing as an artist, I have worked at multiple museum jobs/opportunities at the Kemper and Contemporary art museum (In Saint Louis).
I also serve in a Saint Louis based arts collective called Saint Louis Story Stitchers. In this program I have done/do artwork, photography, podcasts, and logistical work for the organization.