William Downs is a multidisciplinary artist who studies everyday life, human behavior, and dreams toward processing trauma, spirituality, and loss through drawings and installations that layer bodies and landscapes. He has shown in group and solo exhibitions at venues across the United States and abroad including: E.C. Lina Gallery, LA, Contemporary Art Museum, MS, and the Century Gallery in London. In 2018, he received the Artadia Award and a Nellie Mae Rowe Fellowship at the Hambidge Creative Residency Center Program.
Downs’s work featured in the Art AIDS America exhibition which toured nationally for a year headed by Rock Hushka and Johnathan Katz. His work was chosen for the prolific Black Pulp! exhibition piloted by the International Print Center, New York. This exhibit traveled to The Contemporary Art Museum at the University of South Florida and the African American Museum in Philadelphia.
Downs’s work is included in numerous permanent collections including the Peggy Cooper Cafritz Collection, Portman Collection, Schrager Collection and both the Birmingham Museum of Art & the High Museum of Art. He’s featured in various publications such as Black Pulp, Artforum, Sculpture Magazine, and Grizzly Grizzly’s 10 Years – 10 Essays – 10 Exhibits.
Downs earned his MFA from the Mount Royal School of Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art and his BFA in Painting and Printmaking from the Atlanta College of Art and Design. He has continued his educational practice as a visiting lecturer and adjunct professor at institutions including Georgia State University, Tulane University, The Cooper Union School of Art, and Parsons The New School for Design.
