Aubrey Williams
Aubrey Williams' distinctive contribution to 20th century British art as a master of painterly abstraction is increasingly recognized; a contemporary of Alan Davie and Peter Lanyon, Williams’ work invites productive comparison. He is best known for large scale abstractions that express concerns about the destruction of the global ecological balance–from painterly musings on the destruction of the Mesoamerican Olmec, Maya, and Toltec cultures, to beautifully depicted visions of the natural world seen in his “Cosmos” canvases of galaxies against the inky darkness of the night skies, to brilliant portraits of birds, some of which are on the brink of extinction.
From the early 1960s, Williams exhibited widely, winning awards and garnering high acclaim from a London art circuit enchanted by what Guy Brett calls “the heady interface between artistic innovation and trans-nationalism.” The visibility of Williams’ work represented one of the first challenges to the white dominance in the British art establishment. A founding member of the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM), established in 1966. Williams was part of the explosion of creativity generated by the influx of Caribbean writers, artists, and intellectuals to London at the time. Within this supportive network, he found, and contributed to, an enriching framework of …
Aubrey Williams' distinctive contribution to 20th century British art as a master of painterly abstraction is increasingly recognized; a contemporary of Alan Davie and Peter Lanyon, Williams’ work invites productive comparison. He is best known for large scale abstractions that express concerns about the destruction of the global ecological balance–from painterly musings on the destruction of the Mesoamerican Olmec, Maya, and Toltec cultures, to beautifully depicted visions of the natural world seen in his “Cosmos” canvases of galaxies against the inky darkness of the night skies, to brilliant portraits of birds, some of which are on the brink of extinction.
From the early 1960s, Williams exhibited widely, winning awards and garnering high acclaim from a London art circuit enchanted by what Guy Brett calls “the heady interface between artistic innovation and trans-nationalism.” The visibility of Williams’ work represented one of the first challenges to the white dominance in the British art establishment. A founding member of the Caribbean Artists Movement (CAM), established in 1966. Williams was part of the explosion of creativity generated by the influx of Caribbean writers, artists, and intellectuals to London at the time. Within this supportive network, he found, and contributed to, an enriching framework of ideas and discussion, including debates on visual sources, strategies for change, and the stifling effects of being categorised as either a quintessentially Caribbean or British artist.
In the UK, Aubrey Williams’ work has been exhibited at institutions such as the Whitechapel Gallery, the Royal Festival Hall, the Commonwealth Institute, the Hayward Gallery, Camden Arts Centre, and Walker Art Gallery
Courtesy of October Gallery
Arts Council of Great Britain, UK
Castellani House, National Collection of Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana
Contemporary Arts Centre, Kingston, Jamaica
Eliot and Rutherford Colleges, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
Everand Read Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica
Natural History Museum, London, UK
Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, UK
Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
St Catherine’s College, Oxford, UK
Tate Gallery, London, UK
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
York City Art Gallery, York, UK
October Gallery, London, UK