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Artists
Artists Represented by The October Gallery
Anatsui, El
Burroughs, William S
Cohen, Ira
Foley, Fiona
Friedlander, Paul
Glover, Ablade
Gutsa, Tapfuma
Gysin, Brion
Hazoumé, Romuald
Jegede, E. Taiwo
Koraïchi, Rachid
Lalouschek, Elisabeth
Massoudy, Hassan
Lamothe, Frantz
Namok, Rosella
Rimondi, Francesco
Shawa, Laila
Sinzogan, Julien
Owusu-Ankomah
Wijdan

Williams, Aubrey

Xu, Zhongmin
Yoshida, Kenji
Zulu, Sandile

Aubrey Williams
( Guyana )

Hymn To The Sun IX by Aubrey Williams
Symphony No. 5, Opus 47
(Shostakovich series)
Hymn To The Sun V by Aubrey Williams
Symphony No. 14, Opus 135
(Shostakovich series)
Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Symphony No. 1, Opus 10
(Shostakovich series)
Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Symphony No. 10, Opus 93
(Shostakovich series)


Hymn To The Sun IX by Aubrey Williams
Symphony No. 2 Opus 14 with Chorus to the Poetry of Alexander Bezymensky
(Shostakovich series)
Hymn To The Sun V by Aubrey Williams
Symphony No.11, Opus 122
(Shostakovich series)
Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Codex II
(Olmec Maya series)
Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Night and the Olmec
(Olmec Maya series)


Hymn To The Sun IX by Aubrey Williams
Hymn to the Sun IV
(Olmec Maya series)
Hymn To The Sun V by Aubrey Williams
Maya Day
(Olmec Maya series)
Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Time and Elements
(Olmec Maya series)
Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Sun Hieroglyph
(Olmec Maya series)


Hymn To The Sun IX by Aubrey Williams
Hymn to the Sun IX (Olmec Maya series)
Hymn To The Sun V by Aubrey Williams
Hymn to the Sun V
(Olmec Maya series)
Hymn To The Sun V by Aubrey Williams
Codex I (Olmec Maya series)
Hymn To The Sun V by Aubrey Williams
Realm of the Sun


Hymn To The Sun IX by Aubrey Williams
Toltec II
Hymn To The Sun V by Aubrey Williams
Abstract
Hymn To The Sun V by Aubrey Williams
Totemic Bird
Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Untitled


Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Untitled
Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Untitled
Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Untitled
Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Untitled


Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Untitled
Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Untitled

Untitled by Aubrey Williams
Untitled





Aubrey Williams

Aubrey Williams was born in Georgetown, Guyana in 1926, and began painting and drawing from the age of five. He joined the Working People’s Art Class whilst still at school, studying under E. R. Burrowes, a man he credited as ‘opening the Guyanese eyes to art’. A trained agronomist, his work took him to the north-west rainforest of Guyana, where he lived for two years amongst the indigenous Warrau people, a period which proved one of the most formative of his life and where, he said, “I started to understand what art really is”.

By 1952, when he returned to Georgetown at the age of twenty-six, Guyana was nearing the end of its time as a British colony and Williams sailed to London, initially on six months paid leave, to become a painter and began life drawing at St Martins School of Art. As a painter with detailed knowledge of flora and fauna, with personal experience of momentous political change, and with a growing interest in pre-Columbian cultures, he arrived in London with a unique visual and intellectual vocabulary. Over the following years he took the opportunity to travel extensively around Europe, returning to London and to opportunities to exhibit his work. He was also part of the spectacular explosion of creativity, optimism and productivity generated by the influx of Caribbean writers, artists and intellectuals to London at the time. This cultural foment was exemplified in the Caribbean Artists Movement, founded in 1966 by Kamau Brathwaite, poet and historian, John La Rose, poet and activist, and Andrew Salkey, novelist and journalist. Aubrey Williams was a founder member and participated fully in CAM’s activities, as did Ronald Moody, sculptor. Within this mutually supportive network, Williams found, and contributed to, an enriching framework of ideas and discussion, including debates on visual sources, strategies for change, and the stifling effects of being categorised as either a quintessentially Caribbean or British artist.

From the early 1960s, Williams exhibited widely, winning awards and garnering high acclaim from a London art circuit enchanted by what Guy Brett calls “the heady interface between artistic innovation and trans-nationalism” . When he had arrived, London was a city with few apparent signs of black presence, and as such, the visibility of Williams’ work represented one of the first challenges to the white dominance in the British art establishment. Over the years that followed however, Williams found himself increasingly confronted by ‘institutional indifference’, his work framed and discussed solely in terms of ‘otherness’.
Williams’ paintings have always resisted classification, evolving through many distinct phases over the course of his career. From immaculately accomplished depictions of birds, to figurations, to explosive, vibrant abstracts, Williams drew influence from abstract expressionism, from Olmec, Maya, and Warrau imagery, from science fiction, from the symphonies and quartets of Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich, and from artists such as Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, Diego Rivera, Yves Klein and Rufino Tamayo.

Exhibitions
1958-1960  New Vision Centre Gallery, London, UK
1959  St Catherine's College, Oxford
1961  Richmond Hill Gallery, Richmond, UK
1961  Galleria Pater, Milan, Italy
1963   Gabrowski Gallery, London
1963  

Ritchie Hendirks Gallery, Dublin

1963   Gallery 60, Colchester, UK
1964   Forum Galleries, Bristol, UK
1965   Commonwealth Institute, London, UK
1967   Van Mildert College, Durham University, Durham, UK
1967   Oxford University, Oxford, UK
1969   Royal Albert Museum, Exeter, UK
1970   John Peartree Gallery, Kingston, Jamaica
1971   Camden Arts Centre, London, UK
1972   Carifesta '72, Guyana
1972  Illinois Centre, Chicago, USA
1974/5 Olympia International Arts Centre, Jamaica
1976  Gallery Barrington, Kingston, Jamaica,
1979   Rare Tropical Birds, Gallery Barrington, Kingston, Jamaica
1981   Commonwealth Institute, London, UK
1984   Paintings on the Music of Dimitri Shostakovich, Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
1984   The October Gallery, London, UK
1985  Goldsmith College, London, UK
Olmec-Maya (GLC)
1985  Commonwealth Institute, London, UK
1986   Cosmos, Contemporary Arts Centre, Kingston, Jamaica
1987   The October Gallery, London, UK
1988  Shibuya Tokyo Plaza, Tokyo, Japan
1989  De Graaf Fine Art, Chicago, USA
1989   The October Gallery, London, UK
1992   Sotheran's Books, London, UK
1995   The October Gallery, London, UK
1996   Huddersfield Art Gallery,
Huddersfield, UK
1996   Castellani House, Georgetown, Guyana
1998   Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, UK
2002   The October Gallery, London, UK
2004   The October Gallery, London, UK
2006   The October Gallery, London, UK

Selected Group Shows
1960  Museum of Modern Art,San Francisco
1967   Kent University, Canterbury, UK
1967   San Paulo Bienale (XI), Brazil
1968  House of Commons, London, UK
1970   Nicholas Treadwell Gallery, London, UK
1977   Festac-Festival of the Arts, Lagos, Nigeria
1989-90   Hayward Gallery, The Other Story,
London, UK

Collections
Arts Council England, London, UK
Booker McConnell Plc, London, UK
British Broadcasting Corporation, London, UK
Commonwealth Institute, London, UK
Eliot and Rutherford Colleges, University of
Kent, Canterbury, UK
Guyana House of Assembly, Georgetown, Guyana
National Collection of Guyana, Castellani House, Georgetown, Guyana
National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston, Jamaica
Marlborough House, London, UK
October Gallery, London, UK
Olympia International Art Centre, Kingston, Jamaica
Rice Marketing Board of Guyana. Georgetown, Guyana
Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter, UK
Royal Festival Hall, London, UK
St. Catherine’s College, Oxford, UK
Tate Gallery, London, UK
Tuesday Magazine, Boardroom, Chicago, USA
University of the West Indies, Kingston, Jamaica
University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
University of Warwick, Coventry, UK
University of York, York, UK
Van Mildert College, Durham University, Durham, UK
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK
York City Art Gallery, York, UK

Honours
1970    The Golden Arrow of Achievement, Guyana
1980   The Cross of Merit of St. Anthony of the Desert
1986    The Cacique’s Crown of Honour, Guyana

Awards/Prizes
1964    First Commonwealth Biennale of Abstract Art
1979   Real Aula Mallorquesa seu Esquela Miramar
1980   Acadamia Italia delle Arti e del Lavoro, (Nomination as“Academic of Italy with Gold Medal”)

Murals
1970    Timehri, Timehri Airport, Georgetown, Guyana
1976   Olympia International Art Centre, Kingston, Jamaica
1976   African Methodist Episcopal Church of Christ our Redeemer, Kingston, Jamaica
1976   Guyana High Commission, Kingston, Jamaica
1978   Coral Reef Murals, Wiltshire
1978   Dalhousie Murals, University of Dalhousie, Halifax, Nova Scotia

 
 
 

 

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The Gallery is closed during official holidays and for the entire month of August.

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