REVIEWS
Artist Sandy Williams asks what makes a monument | SF Examiner | Artist | 2024 |
Dawoud Bey: Elegy | CAA.reviews | Author | 2024 |
PRESS
Roanoke College honors enslaved laborers' role in its history with sculpture | Richmond Times-Dispatch | 2025 |
Roanoke College Dedicates “Authors and Architects” Memorial to Enslaved Laborers | The Roanoker | 2025 |
New York art exhibitions to see in March | Wallpaper* | 2025 |
A Wax Statue of Lincoln Melted Into a Meme | The New York Times | 2024 |
Abe Lincoln wax sculpture melts in brutal DC heat | BBC | 2024 |
Scorching Heat Wave Turns Lincoln Wax Statue Into a Hot Mess | Hyperallergic | 2024 |
Abraham Lincoln Has Melted | New York Magazine | 2024 |
A wax sculpture of Abe Lincoln was no match for D.C.’s punishing heat | Washington Post | 2024 |
Video shows wax Lincoln sculpture melted after 'wild heat' hits DC | USA Today | 2024 |
Sandy Williams uncovers the rich narratives of Black and Indigenous communities | FRED.fm | 2024 |
The Shed’s Open Call 2023 Group Exhibition, NYC (Review) | ARTEFUSE | 2023 |
Between Artists: Cathy Lin Che, Christopher Radcliff, & Sandy Williams IV | The Shed | 2023 |
I Am Sandy Williams IV | The Shed | 2023 |
Strengthening the Statue of Liberty | Richmond Magazine | 2023 |
University of Richmond Professor… | Newsroom University of Richmond | 2023 |
Art professor traces history in the New York sky | UR Now | 2023 |
Richmond’s Last Confederate Statue Comes Down | Hyperallergic | 2022 |
Assembly 2022 | The Washington Post | 2022 |
Contemporary Exhibition Inspired by the Sacred Leaves One Changed | the Offing | 2022 |
Eyes up: Sculpture professor uses the sky as a canvas | URNow | 2022 |
Baltimore's Best Art Exhibits of 2021 | BmoreArt | 2021 |
Sandy Williams IV and Monsieur Zohore at Springsteen | Art Viewer | 2021 |
Questions of Faith in Art, self and religion |San Francisco Examiner | 2021 |
More Than a Candle: Sandy Williams IV’s Wax Monuments | RVA Mag | 2020 |
Sandy Williams IV: A reimagining of our shared history | The Williams Record | 2020 |
In the Studio: Sandy Williams IV | Reynolds Gallery | 2020 |
From the archives: Sandy Williams IV | OSMOS Online | 2019 |
How cleaning a statue became alums most provocative performance | VCUarts | 2019 |
BIO
I am an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker and professor. My conceptual art practice studies the vernacular of time as it exists across cultural structures, personal experiences, and as a unit of measurement. My public art considers the contextual landscape of communal histories, socio-carceral constructs, and interpersonal relationships, and holds space for disenfranchised memories, participatory experiences and visualizes new frameworks for communal emancipation.
My art practice is ultimately concerned with cultivating love and empathy. My mom is an amazing cook, and when I think about all the meals that she made for our family over the years, I mostly remember how loved they made me feel. I learned how to care through my parents and grandparents, but especially through my mother, and I want my art to hold people and their stories with that same love and care.
I hope that my work can conjure moments of reflection for people. I want to inspire a sense of catharsis that is communal and opens viewers up to perspectives they may not have otherwise considered. I see my artworks as conversation pieces, like portals or bridges, to thoughts, feelings, or histoires that are absent, intangible, or might only exist invisibly within the space.
BA - The University of Virginia
MFA - Virginia Commonwealth University, Sculpture + Extended Media
Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Richmond
Recipient of the 2024 Joan Mitchell Fellowship, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship, the New York Community Trust Van Lier Fellowship. Solo shows at Palo Gallery (NYC), 1708 Gallery (Richmond), the Visual Arts Centre of Clarington (Ontario), Roanoke College (Salem, VA), Telematic Arts (SF), Reynolds Gallery (Richmond), and Second Street Gallery (Charlottesville). Work featured in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, Hyperallergic, and BBC. Collaborations: Creative Time, CulturalDC, Weeksville Heritage Center. Selected Group Exhibitions and Performances: The Museum of Contemporary Art in Virginia Beach, The Arlington Museum of Contemporary Art, The Harnett Museum, Institute of Contemporary Art at VCU, The Shed (NYC), Socrates Sculpture Park (NYC), Grounds For Sculpture (NYC), Martos Gallery (NYC), M+B Gallery (LA), de boer Gallery (LA), Springsteen (Baltimore), NADA House (NYC). Artist in Residence at McDowell (NH), MASS MoCA (MA), Atlantic Center for the Arts (FL), SOMA (CDMX), ACRE (Chicago), and the University of Cumbria (UK).