Kandis Williams facts for kids

Kandis Williams is a talented artist, writer, editor, and publisher. She works in both Berlin, Germany, and Los Angeles, USA. Williams is well-known for her amazing collage art, performance art, and publishing work. Her art often explores important topics like racial issues and nationalism.

About Kandis Williams

Early Life and School

Kandis Williams was born in 1985 in Baltimore, Maryland. She loved painting from a young age. She went to a local art high school to study art. In 2003, she was accepted into the Cooper Union School of Art.

Her time at college was sometimes difficult. Some professors did not fully understand her art about Black people. They thought art should not focus on race. This made her feel disappointed with the art scene and the focus on conceptual art. In 2009, Williams earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Cooper Union.

After college, Williams took part in a few special art programs called residencies. In 2016, she was an artist-in-residence at the Ace Hotel. There, artists turn a hotel room into their studio for a month. During this time, Williams created a reader. She also had a residency at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles from May to June 2021. In the same year, she completed a residency at Cassandra Classrooms.

Her Career Journey

After college, Williams worked as a teacher for a non-profit group. This group taught art to young people in community centers and shelters. This experience helped her see art and visual messages of violence in new ways.

Later, she moved to Berlin, Germany, and lived there for about twelve years. Then she moved to Los Angeles. In 2019, she became a visiting teacher at California Institute of the Arts. She taught there until 2021. She also started teaching at Cassandra Classrooms in 2020, where she still teaches today. After leaving California Institute of the Arts, she became a workshop instructor at Haus der Kulturen Der Welt.

While teaching and creating art, Williams gave many talks and performances. She shared her ideas across America and Europe from 2014 to 2021.

Kandis Williams' Art Style

Kandis Williams' art often looks at modern ideas about society. These ideas include racial identity, power, and feelings. Many of her art themes come from her experiences growing up in Baltimore and her time teaching. She often combines these with famous historical paintings like The Slav Epic.

She creates her art by cutting and pasting images. These images come from magazines and old records. She puts them together to make strong visual stories. Williams also travels to Mexico to make parts for her collages. These trips also give her new ideas for her art. She is still inspired by artists like El Lissitzky and Dziga Vertov. Her performance art explores Institutional racism through a method she calls experimental Pedagogy.

Art Shows by Kandis Williams

Williams has had many art shows where her work is displayed.

Solo Exhibitions

• A Line, 52 Walker, New York, New York (2021)

This was her first show in New York City. It was held at the David Zwirner gallery.

A Line featured large collages. These collages used old photos of dancers and choreographers. Famous dancers like Alvin Ailey, George Balanchine, and Martha Graham were included. Williams also used her own photos. She added her thoughts about performance and politics to some collages. There was also a video installation. It showed a dancer performing a dance Williams created. Large fake plants were placed around the gallery. Some leaves were painted to look like skin, reminding viewers of the human body.

• A Field, Virginia Commonwealth University Institute for Contemporary Art, Richmond, Virginia (2020 - 2021)

This was her first solo show ever. It ran from November 6, 2020, to September 12, 2021.

A Field was a greenhouse filled with plant sculptures. These plants were made from collages pasted onto wire shapes. The collages on the plant leaves showed people working hard. She used photos from old records of chain gangs in Mississippi. She also used images from old magazines and pictures of Uruguayan tango dancers. The whole artwork talked about how work, performance, and how people are seen are connected. There was also a live video called Annexation Tango (2020). It combined photos and old video clips. The backgrounds in the video were places like the former Lorton Reformatory and the Virginia State Prison Farm. Prisoners used to work there as part of their sentence.

• The Rivers of Styxx, Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada (2018)
• Eurydice, 219 Madison, Brooklyn, New York (2018)
• Works on Paper, Vienna (2017)
• Soft Colony, Night Gallery, Los Angeles (2016)
• Disfiguring Traditions, SADE, Los Angeles, CA (2016)
• Inner States, St. Charles Projects, Baltimore, Maryland (2016)
• Red Square, OTTOZOO Project, Milan, Italy (2012)
• The Vesica Dialectic, F... 3000, Berlin, Germany (2009)

Events, Performances, and Workshops

• Fragile, Berlin (2019)
• A Woman's Work, a PopRally event at MoMA organized by Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah (2018)
• Human Resources Los Angeles (2016)

Group Exhibitions

• Strong, Bright, Useful & True: Recent Acquisitions and Contemporary Art From Baltimore, Irene and Richard Frary Gallery, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg Center in Washington, DC (2025)
• Death of A, The Whitney Biennial 2022, Whitney Museum of American Art, Los Angeles (2022)
• Affect: Network: Territory, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles (2016)
• Stains in the Cowshed, Neu West, Berlin (2015)
• A Constellation, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2015)
• The Oracle, The Underground Museum, Los Angeles (2014)
• Artist Talk 68, Projects, Berlin (2014)
• The Breeder, Athens Greece (2013)

Cassandra Press

In 2016, Williams helped start a non-profit organization called Cassandra Press. She co-founded it with Taylor Doran and Jordan Nassar. This organization shares activist and academic texts, flyers, posters, pamphlets, and readers. They also offer classes and art shows. You can buy affordable artist zines (small, self-published magazines) on their website.

The goal of Cassandra Press is to share ideas and language. They want to encourage discussions about ethics, women-led activism, and Black scholarship.

The name "Cassandra" comes from a Trojan princess in ancient stories. She could see the future accurately, but no one ever believed her.

Today, Williams works as a publisher and editor for Cassandra Press. Some of their notable works include Reparations, Double Consciousness Then and Now, and Faces of the Colonizer.

Awards and Recognition

• 2021 Mohn Award (Hammer Museum) — $100,000