Bernard Williams investigates the complexities of American history and culture through painting, sculpture, and installation. Within these broad arenas, the work seeks a kind of open-ended dialogue, addressing identity, flattening hierarchies, and questioning who we are collectively. Risk, adventure, conquest, personal status, privilege, and mechanical development are some of the thematic concepts which are pushed into form. His recent works display fragments and personal discoveries that are then presented with familiar material. They are highly graphic, congested diagrams that mimic historical collections.

The works investigate symbolic and associative histories. They are themselves neither histories, chronologies, nor taxonomies. The interpretations are impulsive and intuitive. They are attempts to manage the overwhelming complexities of constructing histories.

Recent projects (Black Tractor, large car sculptures, Mississippi River performance, airplane construction) are clear examples of collected thematic and historical material finding form in dynamic display. The starting point for his work is often the archives of museums or libraries. The documentary/archival photograph might become the map for building sculpture. His work attempts to merge the historical roots and current expressions of cultural material as diverse as NASCAR, the American Abstract Expressionists painters, and the history of flight. Williams’ work enters the past, present, or future through rough reconstruction, reinterpreting, or a role play with the object or idea. Related stories and hidden or lost narratives are absorbed and reflected. Not all the signs and images used are clearly identifiable or penetrable. His formal and conceptual practices involve collecting, repositioning, or reshaping existing objects for new interpretations.

Williams’s work has been exhibited at the Arts Club of Chicago (IL), Booth Museum (GA), AB Contemporary (Switzerland), Woubonsee College (IL), Thomas McCormick Gallery (IL), Sideshow Gallery (NY), Exit Art (NY), Laumeier Sculpture Park (MO), and Iceberg Project (IL), among others. He has received numerous awards and grants, including the Adolph and Esther Gottlieb Foundation Award, the Meier Foundation Award, an Illinois Arts Counci Grant, and an ARTADIA grant, among others. He has been an artist-in-residence at Cooper Union (NY), EDGE (CA), Fine Arts Workshop Center (MA), the International Studio and Curatorial Program (NY), and John Michael Kohler Arts Center’s Arts/Industry at Kohler Co. (WI), among others. Williams earned his BFA from University of Illinois, Champaign- Urbana, his MFA from Northwestern University, and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.

https://bernardwilliamsart.com/section/233467.html 

https://chicagopublicartgroup.org/artist/bernard-williams/