Kiyan Williams is a visual artist based in New York City. They are attracted to quotidian materials and methods that unearth obscured and ongoing histories of extraction, dispossession, and violence embedded in the American landscape. They earned a BA from Stanford University and an MFA in New Genres from Columbia University. Recent exhibitions include: The Hirshhorn (Washington D.C.), Lyles and King (New York), SculptureCenter (New York), Brooklyn Museum (New York), Socrates Sculpture Park (New York), MIT Vera List Center (Cambridge), and The Shed (New York). Their debut institutional solo exhibition, Between Starshine and Clay, was presented at the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles) in 2022.

Their work has appeared in numerous publications including Artforum, T Magazine, Art in America, ArtNews, Frieze, BOMB Magazine, and Hyperallergic. They were recently featured in Cultured Magazine’s 2023 Young Artist List. Williams is the recipient of the Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship, Graham Foundation Grant, Franklin Furnace Fund, and Fountainhead Fellowship in Sculpture and Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University. The have been awarded residencies at Smack Mellon and BTFA. Forthcoming solo exhibitions will be held at: Atlman Siegel (San Francisco, CA), Peres Projects (Milan, Itlay), and Art Omi (Ghent, NY).

Smack Mellon is a nonprofit arts organization located in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Smack Mellon’s mission is to nurture and support emerging, under-recognized mid-career and women artists in the creation and exhibition of new work, by providing exhibition opportunities, studio workspace, and access to equipment and technical assistance for the realization of ambitious projects. We see ourselves as a vehicle whereby under-represented artists can create, explore and exhibit their creative ideas outside the concerns of the commercial art world, offering many artists the exposure and recognition they deserve.