Acquaetta Williams

About the Artist

Acquaetta Williams is a sculptor, glassblower and painter who has seen her work evolve from her vision of women and African Images through glass with work featuring Giraffe Neck Women and Women Who Carry and then into Timekeepers and Deconstructing Time: Memories. Internationally and nationally educated, Ms. Williams has studied under Harvey Littleton at the University of Wisconsin and Dale Chihuly in master classes at Pilchuck in Seattle, Washington. She received an Arts International Travel Grant that included travels through Benin in West Africa to study subjects for her work and collect materials for use in her art.   Recent exhibitions include, Faceless Melodies, Publick Playhouse, 2016, Hyattsville, MD; Wohlfarth Gallery, 2016, Washington, DC; Under the Influence: Faceless Melodies in a solo exhibition at Harmony Hall 2015, Fort Washington, MD; Street Musicians, at The Waverly Street Gallery in Bethesda, MD; 2014, the Art Institute & Gallery, 2014 in Salisbury, MD; and Project America’s Next Top Master Artist at the Brentwood Arts Exchange 2014.    Ms. Williams also had solo show at Schlesinger Art Center, NVCC, Without Shadows, (opening June 2018), DC Glassworks, DE-EVOLUTION: Time and Memory, in 2011 and group shows include the 6th Annual Black History Month Cultural Art Exhibit Lyrical Vision: The Music In Our Heart, at General Electric’s Cultural Art Exhibit in Stamford, Conn, 2012; Fusion VIII – Synesthesia, Art Fusion Galleries, Miami, Fla., 2011; Harmony Hall Regional Arts Center’s, Deconstructing Time: Memories, 2009 and Contemporary Glass: Hot, Warm and Cold, Bowie State University, 2008.   National shows have included Uncommon Beauty in Common Objects: The Legacy of African-American Craft Art that included stops across the U.S. in San Diego, Dallas, Atlanta and the American Craft Museum in New York as well as the Smithsonian Renwick Gallery in Washington. In 1993, First Lady Hillary Clinton added a commissioned Christmas tree ornament “She Is Safeguarding the Peace” to the permanent collection of the White House. Ms. Williams was included in A Woman’s View: Equality, Development and Peace in 1995 at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.   Acquaetta Williams has lectured across the U.S. and was the artist-in-residence at the New York Experimental Glass Workshop. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Glass Art Society and was a founding member of Glass Axis in Columbus, Ohio. She was also an Associate Member of the Institute of African Studies at the University of Ibaden in Niger, Nigeria.

Artist's Statement

The core of my art lays in the synthesis of assemblage and secondhand components. I have created a montage of fragmented forms: lyrical in movement charged with emotion. Through a layering of surfaces I have unzipped and gently peeled away to expose the heart and determination of individuals that have become invisible. I want the viewer to be slightly thrown off center that these recognizable objects so simple in line and edge can hold such stable tension. The vinyl plays to the illusion of shape shifting through the power of light … even the tiniest of light moves and flickers refusing to settle down. I use bold colors to play to the drama capturing a moment in time. The vinyl pulls the canvas away from the wall at the same time draws the viewer closer. My use of paper adds texture and plays to my love of repetitive shapes. Its nature has a very calming effect as it moves through and around us. I offer the viewer swirling … sometimes vertigo explosions of saturated energy, overpowering the rigid stability of a rectangular space and establishing bold new perspectives that constantly offer more to be discovered. My collage paintings are abstract representations – the faceless: street musician, religious frantic and the homeless, their voices echo emotional agitation and sensitivity – the music. Balancing repetitive curves, slashes canvases that reveal more physical form, gritty textures, sharp bold colors that speak to us with compassion and love. Who are those who orchestrate this music, “I am homeless.” They are faceless, vulnerable and fragile. The core of my art lays in the synthesis of assemblage and secondhand components. I have created a montage of fragmented forms: lyrical in movement charged with emotion. Through a layering of surfaces I have unzipped and gently peeled away to expose the heart and determination of individuals that have become invisible.