New York City, December 10, Nashville’s Herb Williams debuted at the Rare Gallery in Chelsea. It was a colorful event to say the least! Williams, a celebrity on the local art scene, is known for his sculptures made from thousands of crayons. Filling the room were crayon clouds from above and below, and a giant, twisting, technicolor vine and lifeline for three rabbits emerging out of their hole. A mingling of Jack and the Beanstalk, Jason’s Quest for the Golden Fleece, and Alice in Wonderland, Williams’ Plunderland is a metaphor for the often-treacherous search for fulfillment.
Williams is one of the few individuals in the world with a Crayola account. His original sculptures may require as many as hundreds of thousands of individual crayons. He will also cast the completed sculpture in a silicone jacket mold with a two-part epoxy resin and then paint the resin sculpture to look like the original, occasionally producing a small edition. Whatever message the beholder embraces in Williams’ work, be it whimsical, edgy or ironic, hinting at the social or political, one thing is for sure: his art has become a huge hit among the viewing public. Many of his larger pieces can be viewed in hospitals, corporate lobbies, and museums, and he has garnered international acclaim. Of his “intentionally playful, sexy, seemingly sweet” installation Plunderland (2009), he reflects on his specific journey in art: “I myself, as an emerging artist climbing from obscurity to a place in the relevant yet treacherous heights of the art world, can appreciate all of the irony from the uneasy vantage point of standing between the beast and desire.”
Herb Williams is currently represented by The Rymer Gallery in Nashville and the Rare Gallery in Chelsea, New York City.
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