Griff Williams
Born (1966-01-23) January 23, 1966
Butte, Montana, U.S.
EducationUniversity of Montana (BFA)
San Francisco Art Institute (MFA)
Parents
RelativesWhitney Williams (sister)

Griff Williams (born January 23, 1966) is an American painter, publisher, art instructor, filmmaker, and gallerist. He owns Gallery 16 art gallery. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including San Diego Museum of Art, Orange County Museum of Art, Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, New Langton Arts, Andrea Schwartz Gallery and Stephen Wirtz Gallery, the San Jose Museum of Art, and the Eli Ridgeway Gallery.[1] His work has been reviewed in Art in America, Frieze, Flash Art, SFAQ, and Artnet.com.[2]

Early life, family, and education

Griff Williams was born in Butte, Montana in 1966. His father, Pat Williams, was elected to the Montana House of Representatives, and his mother, Carol Williams, served as the first female majority leader in the Montana Senate. His sister is philanthropist Whitney Williams.[3][4]

Williams earned his BFA from the University of Montana, Missoula in 1984 and his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1993.

Career

In 1993, Williams founded Gallery 16 and Urban Digital Color in San Francisco, California.[5] The gallery has exhibited the works of many influential contemporary artists, including Margaret Kilgallen,[6] bell hooks, Paul Sietsema, Arturo Herrera, Rex Ray,[7] Michelle Grabner, Mark Grotjahn, and Ari Marcopoulos.[8]

Williams has been an instructor at the California College of the Arts, the San Francisco Art Institute, and Mills College.

He has also designed and published dozens of books with the Gallery 16 Editions imprint. His recent books include The Gay Seventies: Hal Fischer[9], the first monograph to feature the complete collection of works Hal Fischer produced in San Francisco's Haight and Castro neighborhoods in the 1970s. Published by Chronicle Books in 2020, his book on the life and artwork of the late San Francisco artist Rex Ray[10] includes essays by Rebecca Solnit and Christian Frock.

Filmmaking

In 2021 Williams and his son, filmmaker Keelan Williams made a feature, Tell Them We Were Here. The film is a documentary about eight artists living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area who are guided by a belief that creativity is a tool for societal change. The artwork of Amy Franchescini, Alicia McCarthy, Sadie Barnette, Lynn-Herhsman-Leeson, Nigel Poor, Jim Goldberg, Michael Swaine, and Tucker Nichols are featured in the film with music by Marc Cappelle, Kelley Stoltz, Tommy Guerrero, Vetiver, and Devendra Banhart. The film was selected by film festivals around the world, including DOXA Documentary Film Festival, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, and Newport Beach Film Festival. Tell Them We Were Here was awarded Best Feature Documentary at the Nevada City Film Festival.[11] The San Francisco Chronicle gave the film its highest possible rating and stated, "the Williamses see art not as the exclusive domain of museums, galleries and collections, but as an essential component of a healthy society — something that can make communities not just more beautiful, but more functional."[12]

Nominations

  • SECA Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2000
  • The Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, 2017

Collections

The following institutions have public holdings of Williams' work.

References

  1. ↑ "Griff Williams | Description Without Place | Eli Ridgway Gallery, Bozeman, Montana". Eli Ridgway Gallery. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  2. ↑ "Different Strokes". www.artnet.com. Artnet. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  3. ↑ "Stretcher | Features | Profile: Griff Williams". www.stretcher.org. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  4. ↑ "Griff Williams: It Is Not Down In Any Map; True Places Never Are". missoulaartmuseum.org. Missoula Art Museum. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  5. ↑ "Deep Cuts: Griff Williams on Rex Ray". www.sfmoma.org. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  6. ↑ "Maria Porges on Margaret Kilgallen". www.artforum.com. May 1997. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  7. ↑ "SF Artist Rex Ray (RIP) Gets the Major Retrospective Treatment This May". 7x7 Bay Area. 2017-04-25. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  8. ↑ Nickell of the Missoulian, Joe (21 February 2010). "Griff Williams paints own path through internal landscapes". missoulian.com. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  9. ↑ Fischer, Hal (2019). Hal Fischer: the gay seventies. San Francisco, CA. ISBN 978-0-9827671-7-7. OCLC 1099529116.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ↑ "Rex Ray". Chronicle Books. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  11. ↑ Admin-GNC (2021-08-12). "21st Annual Nevada City Film Festival". Go Nevada County. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
  12. ↑ G. Allen Johnson (May 5, 2021). "Review: 'Tell Them We Were Here' shines a light on eight Bay Area artists". Datebook. Retrieved 2021-11-23.
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