Works of Art: Mike Williams

Works of art by Mike Williams are available at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln Street, Columbia, SC.

Contact Wim Roefs at if-art-gallery@sc.twcbc.com or (803) 255-0068/(803) 238-2351

Untitled, 2007

Welded steel, 16 x 8 x 8 1/2 in.

$ 725

Untitled, 2002, metal and acrylic

18 x 36 inches, $ 350/SOLD

Biography: Mike Williams

Mike Williams (b. 1963)

Mike Williams was born in Sumter, S.C., and lives in Columbia, S.C. In 1990, he received a BFA studio degree from the University of South Carolina. Since the late 1980s, Williams has kept up an intense exhibition schedule throughout South Carolina and beyond, including Atlanta, Evanston, Ill., and Tryon, N.C., achieving both critical acclaim and healthy sales. His paintings and sculptures have been exhibited in the South Carolina State Museum, the Columbia (S.C.) Museum of Art, the Lake County Museum in Chicago, Ill, the Carillon Building in Charlotte, N.C., Sun Trust Plaza in Atlanta, and the Volksbank Gallery in Kaiserslautern, Germany. His public art commissions include large metal sculptures at Midlands Technical College, Governor’s Hill, and Palmetto Health Richland Hospital, all in Columbia, Fulmer Middler School in West Columbia, and Patriot Hall in Sumter. His solo exhibitions include a large 2002-2004 show of outdoors sculpture at the University of South Carolina at Spartanburg.

Photo: Inge Ybema, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Essay: Mike Williams

MIKE WILLIAMS

by Wim Roefs

2007

While Mike Williams is better known as a painter than sculptor, his output as a sculptor has been substantial. Sculpture also represents the most public part of his art. His sculpture is what people see when they pass his studio, hanging from its front wall or standing on the grounds. Williams also has created for several restaurants enormous metal installations, hanging from the ceiling and consisting mainly of fish and fish-related forms. 

In Columbia, S.C., where he lives, Williams has created public sculptures for a local hospital and the Governor’s Hill neighborhood. At the city’s Midlands Technical College Northeast Campus, Williams’ sleek Funnel, topping twenty feet, defines much of the main building’s entrance. In Sumter, where he was born, Evolving Over Time, 14 feet high and almost as wide, holds the central outdoor space of the city’s main cultural facility. 

“When I make sculptures, my main interest is to engage real space and the laws of physics by manipulating metal,” Williams said in the catalogue for Up From The Mud, his October 2005 exhibition with Aaron Baldwin at Columbia’s Gallery 80808. Form and content are equally important to him. His forms are mainly derived from nature, always abstracted though often containing literal references, especially to fish. 

Williams plans some of the larger public sculptures such as Funnel. Typically, though, he sculpts the way he paints, working his way through the materials toward the discovery of art. He cuts, welds and places pieces of steel, acting and reacting to himself until a piece has achieved aesthetic and conceptual balance.

Williams has done some memorable outdoor sculpture exhibitions. In 2001, at Okra Hill Farm in Sandy Run, S.C., he placed more than a dozen sculptures on the farm’s rolling grounds. The welded-steel sculptures were at once set-off by the landscape and integrated into it. They created at times a surrealist effect. A school of small red fish hovered over a grassy surface. The abstracted, minimal fish form Wrought had its well-defined head low to the ground, and its back half, consisting merely of a bent bar, raised high. It appeared to be either bucking or grazing. 

In 2002, the campus of the University of South Carolina at Spartanburg, now USC Upstate, provided a more formal environment. Its central outdoor area is a mixture of paved paths and surfaces and, farther away from the austere buildings, a grass expanse. In the morning, when people went to work, separating the buildings and giving folks something to walk on seemed to be the outdoor space’s only purpose. By the evening, when people went home, Williams had caused a transformation. His dozen-plus sculptures had added texture, definition and depth to the environment, not to mention a good bit of excitement. This was art at work and primary proof that art does work.

Essay: Mike Williams

Mike Williams 

By Wim Roefs

2005

Mike Williams searches for the artwork in the materials he is using while he is using them. His paintings don’t come from studies but from painting. His sculptures might start out with a preconceived notion but they develop as he moves around the metal pieces. “The thing that keeps me interested,” he says, “is how to create something from nothing. It’s a mental activity that’s more fulfilling and humbling than anything I have ever done.”

Thematically, the world processed by this mental activity typically is the outdoors, one of Williams’ passions. Fish, swamps, marshes and landscapes dominate much of his art, as they did his youth in Sumter County, S.C. “There is a tendency in the South,” he says, “to look at what is close to you.” 

To these traditional themes, Williams brings a modern, abstracted, spontaneous, fiercely expressionist style. Despite his subject matter, the legacy he taps into is in part that of Abstract Expressionism and European Art Informel and of 1970s and 1980s German and American Neo-Expressionism. But he feels a kinship to a wider variety of artists and art, including Camille Pissarro, Maurice Prendergast, Piet Mondrian’s early tree paintings, landscapes by John Marin, David Hockney and Fairfield Porter, sculpture by David Smith and Mark di Suvero, or Larry Rivers and Jasper Johns. Then there is South Carolina modernist pioneer J. Bardin, who, Williams says, “could do extraordinary things with color.”

“But I don’t do a lot of research outside of trying to understand what I am doing myself. Dealing with day-to-day emotions is a larger part of me as an artist than some love of what is done. The faces I have painted this year are my response to what I have seen people go through on TV recently during disasters. Intuition drives the process. Whatever it is, I smear the paint around to become. The idea rooted in the 1950s and 1960 that you could do what you wanted, that you could take liberties, has really impressed me.” Such liberty allowed for Williams’ novel notion that one could paint with attitude a fish. 

Williams paints all-out but deliberately. He is unafraid to apply lots of paint but sufficiently restrained to make his action on flat space do what he wants it to. In a formal sense, his paintings and sculptures are intricate compositions built up from many but fully integrated bits and pieces organized around or alternated with the large, gestured swat. The work is high in energy and bravura. 

Williams does not try to render a literal reality. He relates the sensibilities of his environment through the elements that intrigue him. The intrigue includes the way abstract shapes suggest reality and exist in reality itself and that the interaction between them creates movement and energy. 

“When I make sculptures, my main interest is to engage real space and the law of physics by manipulating metal. When I paint, my ability to create an interesting surface and make strong, lively, painterly marks that suggest depth and space and emit energy is as important to me as painting a picture. In that sense, form is equally as important to me as content.”

Resume: Mike Williams

MIKE WILLIAMS -- Resume


EDUCATION

BFA studio degree, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, 1990


SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

In The Round, Columbia College, Columbia, SC, 2006

Recent Work, The Cheryl Newby Gallery, Pawleys Island, SC, 2006

New Works 2004, The Cheryl Newby Gallery, Pawleys Island, SC, 2004

New Paintings and Sculpture, I. Pinckney Simons Gallery, Beaufort, SC, 2003

Recollection, Newberry College, Newberry, SC, 2003

Conception, outdoors sculpture exhibition, University of South Carolina Spartanburg, Spartanburg, SC, 2002-2004

Translation, Francis Marion University, Florence, SC, 2002

Translation, Interpretation of Pritchards Island, University of South Carolina Beaufort, Beaufort, SC, 2001.

Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition, Okra Hill Farm, Sandy Run, SC, 2001

New Paintings and Sculpture, The Jackson Gallery, Aiken, SC, 2000

The Swamp, A Contemplative Space, Sumter Gallery of Art, Sumter, SC, 1998

Recollection, University of South Carolina Beaufort Performing Arts Center, Beaufort, SC, 1997

Mike Williams: New Paintings, Seabury Hall Gallery, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL, 1996



SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

Abstract In Nature: Paul Reed, Laura Spong, Katie Walker & Mike Williams, if ART exhibitions, Gallery 80808/Vista Studios, 2007


Nine Exceptional Artists, The Cherly Newby Gallery, Pawleys Island, SC, 2005
Flow, Sun Trust Plaza, Atlanta, 2004-2005

South Carolina Birds: A Fine Arts Exhibition, Sumter Gallery of Art, 2004; Burroughs & Chapin Museum, Myrtle Beach, SC, 2004; City Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston, SC, 2006; Pickens County Museum of Art and History, Pickens, SC, 2006

Spring Show, a three-person show, Vinson Gallery, Decatur/Atlanta, GA, 2004

Chesley Williams Wimberly Yaghjian, Winter Exhibition, Vista Studios Gallery 80808, Columbia, SC., 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007

In the Gravel Yard: An Outdoors Sculpture Exhibit, The Art Garage, Columbia, SC, 2002

With/Without Distance, Volksbank gallery, Kaiserslautern, Germany, 2002

Shawn Vinson Fine Art, Decatur/Atlanta, GA, 2001

Turning Wood, Painting Landscapes, Upstairs Gallery, Tryon, NC, 2001

Return to Sender, The Postcard Group, Lake County Museum, Chicago, IL, 2001

Return to Sender, The Postcard Group, South Carolina State Museum, Columbia, SC, 2000

Terrain, Carillon Building Lobby, Charlotte, NC, 1997

What’s for Dinner, Columbia Museum of Art, Columbia, SC, 1995


PUBLIC, CORPORATE AND PRIVATE COMMISSIONS

Globe, Hammond School, Columbia, SC, 2006

Funnel, 20.5 feet tall sculpture, stainless steel, Midlands Technical College, Columbia, SC, 2003

Untitled, multi-piece ceiling installation, welded steel, Joe and Amanda Taylor, Debordieu, SC, 2002

No Title, wall sculpture, welded steel, 10’ 6” L x 6’ H, Wim Roefs and Eileen Waddell, Columbia, SC, 2002

Evolving Over Time, welded steel sculpture, 14’ H x 13’ L, at Patriot’s Hall, Sumter, SC, commission from the Sumter Cultural Commission, 2001

Space & Time, mural, project with students, Fulmer Middle School,West Columbia, SC 2001

St. Francis Processional Cross, welded steel cross, 88" H x 14" L x 2" D,
commissioned by and located at St. Francis of Assisi Episcopal Church, Chapin, SC, 2001

An Evolutionary Symbol, welded steel sculpture, 14’ H x 8’ diameter, The Palmetto Steel Project, exhibited temporarily at Boyd Plaza, Columbia Museum of Art Columbia, SC, sponsored by the Cultural Council of Richland & Lexington Counties, Columbia, SC 2000

Variations on Scale, mixed media and welded steel, installation, LaVecchia’s Restaurant, Lake Norman, NC, 2000

More Subjects, mixed media and welded steel, installation, LaVecchia’s Restaurant, Charlotte, NC, 1999

Subjects, installation of enamel on glass murals and mixed media and welded steel sculptures, Aqua Grill Restaurant, Columbia, SC, 1998

Instrument, painted, welded steel, 8’ H x 5’ L, Governor’s Hill, Columbia, SC, commission from the Cultural Council for Richland & Lexington Counties for Rich’s, given to Columbia Housing Authority, 1997

Rotation, Relief from Rotation and Illusion in Perspective, steel sculpture and mixed media works, respectively 7’ H x 5’ Diameter, 34” L x 24” H x 4” D, and 6’ Square, commissioned by Richland Memorial Hospital Foundation for RMH Children’s Emergency Lobby, Columbia, SC, 1996.

Artist's Statement: Mike Williams

“All of my work - paintings, drawings and sculpture - is inspired by my experiences with nature and the environment. My landscape paintings evoke and preserve a sense of place through ever shifting, poetic interpretations and formal explorations of paint. My fish paintings and sculptures serve more as figments of my imagination, my experiences as a fisherman, and my capabilities as an artist. My goal is to go far beyond mere representation.”

Kleinformat/Small Format: October 26- November 12, 2007

(To enlarge, click on image above.)

Kleinformat/Small Format: The Columbia - Kaiserslautern Exchange is currently showing at if ART Gallery, 1223 Lincoln Street. This exhibition runs from Friday, October 26 until Tuesday, November 13, 2007 and included an opening reception on Friday, October 26 from 5 - 10 PM. Additional hours are: Weekdays from 11 AM until 7 PM and Saturdays from 11 AM until 5 PM. The exhibit features work by five South Carolinians (Mary Gilkerson, H. Brown Thornton, Stephen Chesley, Mike Williams, and Tonya Gregg) and five Germans from Columbia's sister city, Kaiserslautern (Silvia Rudolf, Roland Albert, Reiner Mahrlein, Ralph Gelbert and Klaus Hartmann).