2022 Recipient of the Sustainable Arts Fellowship
Heather Williams is a multidisciplinary artist born in St. Croix, USVI and raised in Brooklyn, NY. She uses abstract painting, sculpture and video to explore dualities, and complexities within relationships such as damage and repair. She sculpts faces that are called Witnesses to the past, present and future. They serve as guardians and are quiet, raw, and imperfect yet powerful in their presence. Her abstract work is layered, and textured. Figures emerge on the canvas as Williams pushes the material in an intuitive, organic manner, exploring relationships between one form to another. Her video work is in response to current social issues. Williams’ latest film titled, Safe Passage asks the viewer, “Is there a safe passage for the Black body?” Each work is a love letter to the quiet yet powerful black woman and pays homage to her ancestral roots.
Heather earned a Masters in Fine Art from the School of Visual Arts in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. She has been awarded the Paula Rhodes memorial award for exceptional achievement in MFA Art Practice. Her short film, Safe Passage was awarded honorable mention at the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago. She has also been awarded residencies at EILEEN S. KAMINSKY FAMILY FOUNDATION (ESKFF) at Mana Contemporary, ArtCrawl Harlem at Governors Island, NY and a Sustainable Arts Fellowship at Gallery Aferro, NJ. She has exhibited in many group exhibitions including Peel off the Surface, Tribeca Loft, and solo shows Damage and Repair at Akwaaba Gallery and Protective Spirits at The Bridge Art Gallery. Her sculptures and abstract paintings are in many private collections.