Mr. Poet Testifies, 2022
Acrylic, paper and crochet thread on canvas
40 x 30 inches
Photography by Crissy Pascual, Petaluma Argus-Courier
Born in 1940 in Ogden, Utah, Franklin Williams has been a pivotal figure in the Bay Area art scene since the 1960s. He currently lives and works in Petaluma, CA.
While Williams was still an undergraduate student at the California College of the Arts, visiting professor and esteemed art critic John Coplans gave the young artist a critical vote of confidence that helped set the course of his fruitful career. When the professor discovered Williams’s strange, intensely patterned drawings, he remarked, “this is who you are.” The episode culminated in the pair launching Williams’s more easily categorized paintings off the San Francisco Bay Bridge.
With the new, unusual work, the young artist gained early recognition. Just a few years later, in 1967, Williams was included in the landmark Funk exhibition at the University Art Museum at University of California, Berkeley.
While critics and historians have linked his work to influential movements like Nut Art and Pattern and Decoration, the artist has consciously and persistently maintained his distance from any group identification. For over 50 years, Williams has continued to create intricate and vibrant works that defy conventional categorization. Perhaps due to this steadfast idiosyncrasy, his work has maintained unusual resonance with respect to multiple contemporary art movements through the decades.
In addition to his art practice, Williams has taught generations of students at various institutions, including his alma mater, the California College of Arts (1969–2018), the San Francisco Art Institute (1966–1999), and others.
Williams has been the subject of over 34 solo exhibitions at prestigious venues such as: Parker Gallery (2022, 2019, 2017, Los Angeles); Sonoma County Art Museum (2017, Santa Rosa); and the Crocker Art Museum, (2005, Sacramento). His work has also featured in numerous group shows, including With Pleasure: Pattern & Decoration in American Art 1972–1985 (2019, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles); Less is a Bore: Maximalist Art and Design (2019, ICA Boston); Downtown Painting (2019, Peter Freeman Inc., New York); and Nut Art (2017, Parker Gallery).
Williams's work is featured in numerous public collections including: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the Museum of Contemporary Art (Los Angeles); the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art (Logan, UT); the Oakland Museum of California; Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (Philadelphia); and the San Jose Museum of Art, among others.
Garth Greenan Gallery is pleased to represent Franklin Williams.
Franklin Williams
1940
Born: Ogden, Utah
Lives and works in Petaluma, California
EDUCATION
1964
California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, California
1966
California College of Arts & Crafts, Oakland, California, MFA
TEACHING
1969-2018
California College of Art, San Francisco & Oakland
1966-1999
San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
1990
Gwent College of Higher Education, Newport, Wales
1990
Ruskin School of Drawing and Painting, Oxford, England
1968
University of California, Davis, CA
1967
California State Hayward, CA
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
1959
Carbon College, Price, Utah
1964
New Mission Gallery, San Francisco, California
1966
Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California
Motion Gallery, San Jose, California
1967
California College of Arts & Crafts Gallery, Oakland, CA
Franklin Williams, Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco, California
1968
Franklin Williams, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
1969
Arleigh Gallery, San Francisco, California
Franklin Williams, Phyllis B. Kind Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1970
University of California, Davis, California
1972
Gallery Marc, Washington, D.C.
1973
Galerie B, Paris, France
1978
Diablo Valley College, Pleasant Hill, California
1980
Sheppard Fine Arts Gallery, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada
1981
Franklin Williams, Sonoma State University Gallery, Rohnert Park, California
1983
Franklin Williams: Paintings & Constructions, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California, September 22–November 6
1977–1983
Gallery K, Washington, D.C.
1984
Arkansas Museum of Art, Little Rock, Arkansas
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City, Utah
1971–1989
Braunstein Gallery, San Francisco, California
1992
University of the Pacific, Stockton, California
1993
Joseph Chowning Gallery, San Francisco, CA
1995
L. Noel Harvey Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
1997
Franklin Williams, Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, Utah
2003
Franklin Williams, Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery, San Francisco, California
2005
Franklin Williams, Crocker Art Museum Acquisition Exhibition, Sacramento, California
2007
Franklin Williams, Taylor & Company, San Francisco, California
2008
Obsession, Lizabeth Oliveria Gallery, Los Angeles, California, March 1–April 5
2017
Franklin Williams: 1963-73, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, California, September 17–November 4
Eye Fruit: The Art of Franklin Williams, Sonoma County Art Museum, Santa Rosa, California, May 13 – August 27
2019
The Inimitable Professor Emertius, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, California, October 27–December 21
2022
Meditative Spectacle: Paintings 1974–76, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, California, November 6–December 23
2024
Franklin Williams: Desire and Obsession, Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, New York, March 7–April 20
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
1963
Some New Art in the Bay Area, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
1964
Six Painters, New Mission Gallery, San Francisco, California
A Collection Representing 57 Years, Oakland Art Museum, Oakland, California
1966
Group Exhibition, Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
Group Exhibition, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
1967
Painting Annual, Whitney Museum, New York, New York, Dec 13–Feb 4, 1968
Grant Smith, Bob Anderson, Stephen Kaltenbach, Franklin Williams, Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco, California
Funk Art, University of California, Berkeley, California, April 28–May 29
1968
Group Exhibition, Esther Robles Gallery, Los Angeles, California
Group Exhibition, Galleria Odyssia, New York, New York
Sculpture Annual, Whitney Museum, New York, New York, December 17–January 19, 1969
Group Exhibition, University of California, Davis, California
1969
San Francisco Museum of Art, San Francisco, CA
1970
DeForest, Schlotzhauer, Williams, Arleigh Gallery, San Francisco, California, May–June
Group Exhibition, Gallery Marc, Washington, D.C.
Group Exhibition, Richmond Art Center, Richmond, California
1972
Nut Art, California State University, Hayward, California
1973
Statements, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland
1974
Group Exhibition, University of Nevada, Reno, Nevada
1969–1975
Phyllis B. Kind Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1975
Tribute to the San Francisco Art Institute, Hansen Fuller, San Francisco, California
1976
6 from California, Museum of Art, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, October 29–November 20
1977
Bay Area Artists, Oakland Museum of California, California
1979
Major Works, Gallery K, Washington, D.C.
1981
Surface Design/The New Decorative, San Jose State University, San Jose, California, January 26–February 27
Abstractions, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, California
1983
On & Off the Wall: Shaped and Colored, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California, February 8–April 7
1984
Jacksonville Art Museum, Jacksonville, Florida, June 9–July 31
Utah Museum of Fine Art, Salt Lake City, UT
San Francisco Bay Area Painting, Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska, September 9–October 29
The Dilexi Years (1958-1970), Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California, October 13–December 16
1985
Group Exhibition, Laguna Beach Museum of Art, Laguna Beach, California
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs, CA
1988
pFORMative ACTS, Walter McBean Gallery, San Francisco, California
2002
The Medium is the Message, San Jose Museum, San Jose, California, March 2–June 2
2004
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
2008
At Home, Lincart, San Francisco, California, September 25–October 25
2012
Williams | Waits, Smith Anderson North, San Anselmo, California, June 16–August 4
2016
Curtains, 47 Canal Gallery, New York, New York, January 16–February 14
2017
Jean Conner, Wally Hedrick, Deborah Remington and Franklin Williams, Karma, New York, New York, November 12–December 22
Nut Art, Parker Gallery, Los Angeles, California, May 28–August 5
2018
Be Not Still: Living In Uncertain Times (Part 2), di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, California, June 23–December 30
Way Bay, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, California, January 17–June 3
2019
Less is a Bore: Maximalist Art and Design, ICA Boston, Boston, Massachusetts, June 26–September 22
Downtown Painting, presented by Alex Katz, Peter Freeman Inc., New York, New York, June 5–July 26
Landscapes Without Boundaries, Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Davis, California, July 14–December 15
Building a Different Model, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, California, March 9-December 29
2020
Lover Earth: Art and Sexuality, The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, May 30–August 23
2019-2021
With Pleasure: Pattern & Decoration in American Art 1972–1985, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California, October 27–May 18; travels to the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, June 26–November 28, 2021
2023–2024
Nuts and Who’s: A Candy Store Sampler, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California, August 11, 2023–February 25, 2024
To the Max!, di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art, Napa, California, September 8, 2023–August 25, 2024
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, University of California, Berkeley
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
di Rosa Collection, Napa, California
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, University of California, Davis, California
Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
Museum of Northern California Art, Chico, California
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Logan, Utah
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, California
Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska
Tang Teaching Museum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York
University of New Mexico, Santa Fe, New Mexico
