Williams was inducted in November as a National Academician in the National Academy of Design, considered one of the highest honors in American art and architecture.
National Academicians are chosen by
their peers and serve as ambassadors for the arts in America. Williams
art will be included in the National Academy Museum's collection of
more than 7,700 works spanning nearly 200 years.
His work is often featured in exhibitions, including the prestigious EXPO Chicago 2018,
held Sept. 19-22, and his first solo show in Los Angeles, River of
Styx, which opened in October and ran through Dec. 15 in the Luis De
Jesus Gallery.
Williams will be part of the upcoming exhibition Men of Steel, Women
of Wonder, at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in
Bentonville, Arkansas, from Feb. 9 to April 22.
Another recent exhibition, at the CUE Art Foundation in Manhattan, drew critical acclaim. Peter Williams: With So Little to be Sure Of was reviewed in the online arts magazine Hyperallergic by noted critic John Yau in March 2018.
Williams uses caricature to invite viewers whatever their
political persuasion to reflect upon how they see people of a race
different from their own, as well as underscore the intolerance,
distrust, and fear running throughout our everyday lives, Yau wrote.
Williams has won numerous awards, including the Whitney Biennial in
2002, Djerassi Resident Artists Program in 2018, Joan Mitchell Award in
2004 and 2007, a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1985-87 and the Wynn
Newhouse Award in 2012.
His work is included in such permanent collections as the Detroit
Institute of Arts, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Whitney Museum of
American Art, Delaware Art Museum and Howard University.
Article by Ann Manser; photos by Evan Krape