“My art is driven by passion and a commitment to create site-works that are both moving and transformative. 
With a focus on monumental-scale installations in the public realm my work explores symbolic intersections between art, technology, nature and humanity. Because art set in public venues can reach such a vast audience — and, if the concept is a compelling one — I believe it can enrich many lives.” 
— Stuart Williams

Photo © Andrzej Bialuski

 a fusion of nature, technology and art.” — Peter Selz, MoMA, New York
“Our emotional connection to an increasingly technologically dominated life would not be addressed by most artists until years later. This makes the Luminous Earth Grid, by American artist Stuart Williams, all the more remarkable.”  “iGNANT,” Berlin
View a Brief Video About The Artist.
A UNIQUE SKILL SET
With a track record of challenging and ambitious installations on two continents, Williams’ monumental-scale site works have garnered critical acclaim around the globe. Whether set in an urban center, or a natural landscape, his
head-turning, mesmerizing works have captivated thousands. Holding a degree in architecture, Williams leads teams of engineers and specialists tuned to the unique needs of each project. With extensive experience working with community groups and planners in both the U.S. and abroad, he envisions evocative concepts that resonate with the essence
of each specific location. 


BIOGRAPHY

Williams graduated from the College of Architecture at the University of Michigan. Soon after graduation, his interests gravitated decidedly to fine art, and more definitively to site-specific, environmental art. The land artists of the 60s caught Williams’ attention — as did the work of Turrell and Flavin — and so did the luminous colors of Diebenkorn, Rothko and Matisse. His education, with its blend of architecture, art, engineering and urban planning, provided him with an intimate understanding of materials, historical context, grand scale, and three dimensional space. It also gave him the insight in his work to speak to the unique qualities of each new site he addresses. All of these factors helped to propel him into the realm of large-scale environmental art.
His most ambitious installation, “Luminous Earth Grid,” was realized within view of a major freeway in the rolling hills north of San Francisco. “It’s like a computer generated image come to life,” said the artist, who spent five years raising nearly $500,000 to realize the massive project. Cosponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, and Intersection for the Arts in San Francisco, it was a vast array of 1,680 four foot, energy-efficient fluorescent lamps, which swept over an expanse equal to 8 football fields. Said Williams, “The glowing green grid can be seen as an icon of computer imaging technology, which in this ‘real life’ incarnation, gently melds with the flowing shape of a lovely landscape... a dream-like vision of symbiotic unity.” The project drew international critical acclaim. Peter Selz, former curator at MoMA in New York and founding father of the UC/ Berkeley Art Museum, said “It emanated a sense of the romantic sublime with its aura of surprise and wonder. It is a very, very beautiful thing… a fusion of nature, technology and art…”

Currently, and under the sponsorship of the New York Foundation for the Arts, Williams is working on a dual-city light installation for Paris and New York, which will link the two cities in a shared public art experience. During a sabbatical in Paris — ‘‘The City of Light” — Williams developed a concept for simulating human breath with computer controlled waves of energy-efficient LED uplighting on architectural facades. 

Another installation, also sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, opened in Dresden, Germany in February 2015 to mark the 70th annual observance of the firebombing of Dresden in the closing days of World War II in 1945. In homage to the city's survival and renewal, and to honor the remembrance of an iconic event in the horrors of war, Williams installed “Lebensatem/Dresden” (“Breath of Life/Dresden”) at the historic Dresden Cathedral. The artist transformed the facade with light... causing it to appear to “breathe.” Waves of light, rising and falling at the pace of human breath, created the visualization of respiration. A masterpiece of Baroque architecture, the Dresden Cathedral 
(c. 1738) is one of the city’s foremost historic landmarks. Along with Dresden’s city center it was virtually destroyed in the bombing, and then meticulously rebuilt — stone by stone — in the 1980s. For 3 years, Williams worked hand-in-hand with Dresden city officials and planners in pinpointing the Cathedral as the ideal site for this project, as well as in the formidable effort to win approval from the Dresden Department of Monument Preservation and from the Provincial Government of Saxony. 
With its prominent setting on the River Elbe, the Dresden Cathedral is a key component of Dresden’s famed Baroque skyline. A kinetic light installation in such a prominent setting, towering 275 feet above the heart of the city, became an artwork on the scale of the cityscape. “Breath of Life/Dresden” was nominated for the 2015 “Global Fine Art Awards.” They called it... “an emblematic artwork of timeless and far reaching importance.”

Said Williams, “Given Dresden’s nearly total devastation in a suffocating firestorm — a searing conflagration  sparked by 3 days and nights of Allied air raids, and where tens of thousands perished — I think the vision of one of the city's most treasured historic landmarks appearing to breathe is deeply moving. As the son of an American soldier who was fighting in Germany against the Third Reich when Dresden was bombed, I see the project's underlying message as reconciliation… like a hand of friendship extended across the Atlantic... and across time.” 
A documentary film is in development.

Williams has been the recipient of grants and commissions from a wide variety of organizations, among them, the U.S. Embassy in Berlin; The City of Dresden, Germany; Pacific Gas & Electric, San Francisco; the LEF Foundation, St. Helena, CA; the Rene and Veronica di Rosa Foundation, Napa, CA; the Osram Sylvania Corporation; Anheuser Busch; the Cockayne Fund, Louisville, KY; Columbus Public Art 2012; and an anonymous foundation in New York. Williams has been an invited speaker at numerous venues including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Art Institute, the University of California, Davis, the Global Fine Art Awards in New York, and at the United Nations at a seminar titled “Unlearning Intolerance.”
The artist’s work has been published around the world in art journals, newspapers, art blogs, fine art books, and numerous other publications including Art in America, Public Art Review, Abitare (Milan), LIFE Magazine, France Soir (Paris) and Kunstforum International (Cologne). Williams’ most monumental installation, “Luminous Earth Grid,” was recently featured in “Art Installations: A Visual Guide,” Roads Publishing (Dublin). The publisher describes the book as “a visual journey and exploration of the most significant and groundbreaking highlights of installation art since the 1960s. In 2022, the artist's work was featured in a large format hard cover book titled “Volume Three,” a co-production of ERG Media, London; L'Art de L'Automobile, Paris and Porsche, Stuttgart. The book presents in-depth curated stories with a detailed exploration of fine art, architecture and design.

Stuart Williams at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin in February 2015, following his successful installation of “Breath of Life/Dresden” at the historic
Dresden Cathedral, marking the 70th Anniversary Observance of the WWII bombing of Dresden. Photo © Craig Collins.

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