Griff Williams (born January 23, 1966) is an American painter, publisher, art instructor, filmmaker, and gallerist. He owns

Gallery 16 Gallery 16 is a contemporary art gallery located in the SoMa district of San Francisco, California. It is owned by the San Francisco-based painter Griff Williams, and opened in 1993. Artists who have exhibited there include Graham Gillmore, Tuck ...

art gallery. His paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide, including

San Diego Museum of Art The San Diego Museum of Art is a fine arts museum located at 1450 El Prado in Balboa Park in San Diego, California that houses a broad collection with particular strength in Spanish art. The San Diego Museum of Art opened as The Fine Arts Galler ...

Orange County Museum of Art The Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located on the campus of the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, California. The museum's collection comprises more than 4,500 objects, with a concentration o ...

Crocker Art Museum The Crocker Art Museum is the oldest art museum in the Western United States, located in Sacramento, California. Founded in 1885, the museum holds one of the premier collections of Californian art. The collection includes American works dating f ...

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

New Langton Arts New Langton Arts (active 1975 – 2009) was a not-for-profit arts organization focusing on contemporary art founded in 1975 and located the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco, California. Part of the first wave of alternative art spaces ...

, Andrea Schwartz Gallery and Stephen Wirtz Gallery, the

San Jose Museum of Art The San José Museum of Art (SJMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum in downtown San Jose, downtown San Jose, California, United States. Founded in 1969, the museum holds a permanent collection with an emphasis on West Coast of the United Sta ...

, and the Eli Ridgeway Gallery. His work has been reviewed in ''

Art in America ''Art in America'' is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world in the United States, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It i ...

'', ''Frieze'', ''

Flash Art ''Flash Art'' is a contemporary art magazine, and an Italian and international publishing house. Originally published bilingually, both in Italian and in English, since 1978 is published in two separate editions, Flash Art Italia (Italian) and Fl ...

, SFAQ,'' and Artnet.com.

Early life, family, and education

Griff Williams was born in

Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the ...

in 1966. His father, Pat Williams, was elected to the

Montana House of Representatives The Montana House of Representatives is, with the Montana Senate, one of the two houses of the Montana Legislature. Composed of 100 members, the House elects its leadership every two years. Composition of the House :''67th Legislature – 2021� ...

, and his mother, Carol Williams, served as the first female majority leader in the

Montana Senate The Montana Senate is the upper house of the Montana Legislature, the state legislative branch of the U.S. state of Montana. The body is composed of 50 senators elected for four years. Composition of the Senate :''67th Legislature – 2021–202 ...

. His sister is philanthropist Whitney Williams. Williams earned his BFA from the

University of Montana, Missoula The University of Montana (UM) is a public research university in Missoula, Montana. UM is a flagship institution of the Montana University System and its second largest campus. UM reported 10,962 undergraduate and graduate students in the fall ...

in 1984 and his MFA from the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a private college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mississippi River. Approximately ...

in 1993.

Career

In 1993, Williams founded

and Urban Digital Color in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. The gallery has exhibited the works of many influential contemporary artists, including

Margaret Kilgallen Margaret Leisha Kilgallen (October 28, 1967 – June 26, 2001) was a San Francisco Bay Area artist who combined graffiti art, painting, and installation art. Though a contemporary artist, her work showed a strong influence from folk art. She was ...

bell hooks Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name bell hooks, was an American author and social activist who was Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College. She is best known for her writings on ...

Paul Sietsema Paul Sietsema (born 1968) is a Los Angeles-based American artist who works primarily in film, painting and drawing. His work addresses the production, consumption, and proliferation of cultural objects, reflecting his interest in the possibility of ...

Arturo Herrera Arturo Herrera (born 1959) is a Venezuelan Visual arts, visual artist who exhibits internationally, known for his melding of cartoons and collage. He has had one-person exhibitions at Centre d’Art Contemporain, Dia Art Foundation, Dia Center Fo ...

Rex Ray Rex Ray (September 11, 1956 – February 9, 2015) was an American graphic designer and collage artist, based in San Francisco. Biography Born as Michael Patterson on September 11, 1956, on a United States Army base in Germany, and he was raised ...

Michelle Grabner Michelle Grabner (born 1962 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin) is an artist, curator, and critic based in Wisconsin. She is the Crown Family Professor of Art at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she has taught since 1996. She has curated sever ...

Mark Grotjahn Mark Grotjahn (born 1968) is an American painter best known for abstract work and bold geometric paintings. Grotjahn lives and works in Los Angeles. Early life and education Grotjahn was born in Pasadena, but grew up in the Bay Area.Arcy Douglas ...

, and

Ari Marcopoulos Ari Marcopoulos (born Aristos) is an American self-taught photographer, adventurer and film artist. Born in the Netherlands, he is best known for presenting work showcasing elusive subcultures, including artists, snowboarders and musicians. He liv ...

. Williams has been an instructor at the

California College of the Arts California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996 it opened a second campus in San ...

, the San Francisco Art Institute, and

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

. He has also designed and published dozens of books with the

Editions imprint. His recent books include ''The Gay Seventies: Hal Fischer','' the first monograph to feature the complete collection of works Hal Fischer produced in San Francisco's Haight and Castro neighborhoods in the 1970s. Published by

Chronicle Books Chronicle Books is a San Francisco-based American publisher of books for adults and children. The company was established in 1967 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publisher of the ''San Francisco Chronicle''. ...

in 2020, his book on the life and artwork of the late San Francisco artist

includes essays by

Rebecca Solnit Rebecca Solnit (born 1961) is an American writer. She has written on a variety of subjects, including feminism, the environment, politics, place, and art. Early life and education Solnit was born in 1961 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, to a Jewish fa ...

and Christian Frock.

Filmmaking

In 2021 Williams and his son, filmmake
Keelan Williams
made a feature,
Tell Them We Were Here
'. The film is a documentary about eight artists living and working in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

who are guided by a belief that creativity is a tool for societal change. The artwork of Amy Franchescini,

Alicia McCarthy Alicia McCarthy is an American painter. She is a member of San Francisco's Mission School art movement. Her work is considered to have Naïve or Folk character, and often uses unconventional media like housepaint, graphite, or other found mater ...

Sadie Barnette Sadie Barnette (born 1984), is an American artist who works primarily with drawing, photography, and large-scale Installation art, installation. Her work explores Black life, personal histories, and the political through material explorations. Sh ...

, Lynn-Herhsman-Leeson,

Nigel Poor ''Ear Hustle'' is a non-fiction podcast about prison life and life after incarceration created by Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams, both formerly incarcerated, and Nigel Poor, an artist who volunteers at San Quentin State Prison. In 2016, it ...

Jim Goldberg Jim Goldberg (born 1953) is an American artist and photographer, whose work reflects long-term, in-depth collaborations with neglected, ignored, or otherwise outside-the-mainstream populations. Among the many awards Goldberg has received are thr ...

, Michael Swaine, and Tucker Nichols are featured in the film with music b
Marc Cappelle

Kelley Stoltz Kelley Stoltz (born 1971) is an American singing, singer, songwriter and musician. He currently resides in San Francisco, California. His music has been compared to that of Brian Wilson, Velvet Underground, Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen. Musica ...

Tommy Guerrero Tommy Guerrero (born September 9, 1966) is an Indigenous American musician, composer, and professional skateboarder. Early life Guerrero was born in San Francisco, California. He is of Ohlone-native, Chilean, and Filipino descent from his fat ...

Vetiver ''Chrysopogon zizanioides'', commonly known as vetiver and khus, is a perennial bunchgrass of the family Poaceae. Vetiver is most closely related to ''Sorghum'' but shares many morphological characteristics with other fragrant grasses, such as ...

, and Devendra Banhart. The film was selected by film festivals around the world, including

DOXA Documentary Film Festival The DOXA Documentary Film Festival is a documentary film festival based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is held annually held for 10 days in May, and is presented by The Documentary Media Society, a non-profit organization. The festiva ...

Big Sky Documentary Film Festival Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is an annual non-fiction film festival held in Missoula, Montana each February. The event showcases documentary films from around the world. The festival first began in 2003 as a seven-day event. It is now a ten- ...

, and

Newport Beach Film Festival The Newport Beach Film Festival (NBFF) is an annual film festival in Newport Beach, California, typically held in late April. In 2022, it was announced that the festival have permanently changed its date to be held in October, as the festival beg ...

. ''Tell Them We Were Here'' was awarded Best Feature Documentary at the Nevada City Film Festival. The

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

gave the film its highest possible rating and stated, "the Williamses see art not as the exclusive domain of museums, galleries and collections, but as an essential component of a healthy society — something that can make communities not just more beautiful, but more functional."

Nominations

*SECA Award from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2000 *The Louis Comfort Tiffany Award, 2017

Collections

The following institutions have public holdings of Williams' work. *The Crocker Museum *

Stanford Hospital Stanford University Medical Center is a medical complex which includes Stanford Health Care and Stanford Children's Health. It is consistently ranked as one of the best hospitals in the United States and serves as a teaching hospital for the ...

*Neiman Marcus Collection *Progressive Insurance *

Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive The Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA, formerly abbreviated as BAM/PFA) are a combined art museum, repertory movie theater, and archive associated with the University of California, Berkeley. Lawrence Rinder was Director from ...

External links

griffwilliams.comGallery 16Tell Them We Were Here
References {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Griff 1966 births Living people People from Butte, Montana San Francisco Art Institute alumni University of Montana alumni Artists from the San Francisco Bay Area San Francisco Art Institute faculty Painters from California