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CHARLES EDWARD WILLIAMS



SUN + LIGHT
WARM WATER
SELF
PUT YOUR HANDS WHERE MY EYES CAN SEE
BLACK RIVER
NIGHT
EVERYONE LOVES THE SUNSHINE
HERE WE STAND
I SIT + SEW

NEWS
02.24 Drawing, David Klein Gallery, Detroit, MI
02.24 Stay in the Light, Cameron Art Museum, Wilmington, NC
02.24 Religion in the Deep South, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
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PROFILE
Charles Edward Williams is a contemporary visual artist from Georgetown, SC.
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FILM OTHER WORK

TEXT BY: HEATHER HAKIMZADEH
© CHARLES EDWARD WILLIAMS
PUT YOUR HANDS WHERE MY EYES CAN SEE

CONFRONTATION III_JULY 17,2014 – 48”x48” – Oil on panel NIGHTSTICK_HARLEM, JULY 1964 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper HOPE – 8”x10” – Oil on watercolor paper HOPE #2 – 8”x10” – Oil on watercolor paper FRIDAY NIGHT_JULY 24, 1964 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper RIOTER_WATTS, AUGUST 13, 1965 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper KID WITH LUCY_NEWARK, JULY 1967 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper CHOKEHOLD_HARLEM, JULY 1964 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper RUNNING SC #1, APRIL 4, 2015 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper RUNNING SC #2, APRIL 4, 2015 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper RUNNING SC #3, APRIL 4, 2015 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper HAULED AWAY_SAN FRANCISCO 1968 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper RIOTER_JULY 24, 1964 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper STAND UP_BALTIMORE – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper KID_AUGUST 2015 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper NOW_1972 – 48”x52” – Oil on watercolor paper TAYLOR_1963 – 22”x30” – Oil on watercolor paper BLOODSHED_DETROIT, JUNE 1943 – 48”x52” – Oil on watercolor paper


Winthrop University McColl Center of Art & Innovation
"Put Your Hands Where My Eyes Can See" references the vulnerability found at the moment a Black man is placed under arrest. In each painting, the hands serve as metaphor for the emotional state of both the figure being arrested and the arresting authority. Clenching, grasping, grabbing, or open in capitulation, each one lays bare the narrative specific to the individual. Both recent and historical events evidence that this continues to be a moment of deep angst for Black people who face arrest in this country.

Williams drew inspiration from Francisco Goya's The Disasters of War series and Gerhard Richter's "October 18, 1977. Both illustrate the worse of humanity within official government structures.  Williams asks the viewer to understand the extreme anxiety people face when their government does not represent them and often denies their humanity within its systems.