New Orleans native Carl Joe Williams creates large scale installations and narrative-driven work that include complex color combinations in rhythmic and harmonic patterns inspired by numerology from nature, as well as by cultural echoes of African diasporic memory. In his works reflective and textured surfaces, and kinetic and sonic elements contribute to create a transportive visual experience. The installations often include figures, as well as repurposed objects. Over the years Williams work has expanded to involve murals, sculpture, book illustrations, sound and videography. Williams continues to explore narratives that speak to our collective human condition.
Williams has exhibited nationally, most recently in Afrocosmologies: American Reflections at the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT 2019-2020, and the 2014 Crystal Bridges State of the Art:Discovering American Art Now exhibition, where he was featured in the accompanying documentary. Current exhibitions include the touring Per(Sister): Incarcerated Women of Louisiana, currently being shown in the Ford Foundation Gallery in New York. Public art projects include Journeys, an installation at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, GA; Sculptural Trees, a public art installation in Metairie, La, and a mural commissioned by Paper Machine in New Orleans, La.. Williams is the founding member of Blights Out, a community- and artist-led initiative to activate community agency in neighborhood development in New Orleans. Williams studied at the Atlanta College of Art in Atlanta, GA after attending the New Orleans Center for Creative Art (NOCCA.)
Photograph of Carl Joe Williams. Photo by Tammy Mercure.