Charleston native artist Manning Williams (1939 - 2012) began his career as a realist artist. However, in the 1990s, his art took an extraordinary turn as Williams began to incorporate comic book imagery into large, abstract expressionist compositions. This synthesis often utilized a recurrent vocabulary of shapes and symbols to create an elusive narrative exploring personal, historical and political themes.
Williams was trained at the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts and later taught at the Gibbes School of Art and College of Charleston. His work has been widely exhibited and published and can be found in the collections of the Greenville County Museum, S.C. State Museum and the Gibbes Museum of Art.
Manning Williams will be on display March 19 through September 22, 2019 in the Special Exhibits Gallery.
Top image: Manning Williams (American, 1939 – 2012), Bishop and the Egyptian Roach, acrylic on canvas, 2002, on loan from Barbara S. Williams
