Kent Williams

Kent Robert Williams (born 1962)

Early life Williams was born in New Bern, North Carolina. He attended the Pratt Institute in New York City and graduated in 1984. The latter series was a result of Williams and Muth's desire to work on a project together. Williams was the regular cover artist for DC Comics' Hellblazer in 1990–1991. Comics historian Les Daniels noted that Williams' "impressionistic painting style is an example of the new look that DC's Vertigo line brought to comics." Williams drew the "Fear of Falling" short story for Vertigo Preview #1 (1993) which featured the Sandman and was written by Neil Gaiman. In 2006 he illustrated a graphic novel adaptation of The Fountain from the script by filmmaker Darren Aronofsky.

Teaching Kent Williams was a visiting instructor at the Pratt Institute, and has taught at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco; East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, and the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Valencia, California. Williams lives in Los Angeles and teaches painting at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. In addition, he is an MFA mentor faculty at the Laguna College of Art and Design.

Fine art career

Williams' career as a fine art painter has run parallel to his comics work since the early 1990s. His painting Trace Double-Portrait was exhibited at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., as part of the Outwin Boochever Portrait Painting and Sculpture Exhibition in 2006–2007.

His work has been included in significant international group exhibitions, including In the Land of Retinal Delights: The Juxtapoz Factor at the Laguna Art Museum, Laguna Beach, California (2008); Art of the New World at the Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, United Kingdom (2010); and Your Body as an Excuse: Eroticism in Art at the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM), Barcelona, Spain (2020).

In 2022, Williams presented Kwaidan, a solo exhibition at KP Projects, Los Angeles, in which he interpreted the supernatural Japanese stories of Lafcadio Hearn through painting, resulting in the 2023 publication The Kwaidan Collection (Beehive Books), with an introduction by Darren Aronofsky.

Williams is currently represented by Evoke Contemporary in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Ryan Graff Contemporary in San Francisco, California.

Exhibitions His work has been the subject of a number of solo exhibitions including shows in New York City; San Francisco; Sundance, Utah; the Nasher Museum of Art, Durham, North Carolina; in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he is represented by Evoke Contemporary Gallery; and in Los Angeles, where he is represented by The Merry Karnowsky Gallery. His painting Trace Double-Portrait was exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., as part of the Outwin Boochever 2006 Portrait Exhibition.

Awards Williams is the recipient of a number of awards for his work, including the Yellow Kid Award, Lucca, Italy's comics award. In 2001, he was invited to be a fellow at the Sundance Filmmakers Lab in Sundance, Utah.

Comics bibliography Byron Preiss Visual Publications The Ray Bradbury Chronicles #1 (1992)

Darkstorm Productions Darkstorm #1–2 (1982)

DC Comics

Batman Black and White #2 (1996) Sandman Special #1 (one page) (1991) Tell Me, Dark GN (1992)

Paradox Press The Big Book Of Urban Legends (1994)

Piranha Press Prince: Alter Ego #1 (1991)

Vertigo Death Gallery #1 (one page) (1994) Destiny: A Chronicle of Deaths Foretold #1–3 (1996) Fight for Tomorrow #1–6 (2002–2003) Flinch #4 (1999) The Fountain GN (2005) Shade, the Changing Man vol. 2 #50 (one page) (1994) Vertigo Preview #1 (1993) Vertigo: Winter's Edge #2 (1999)

Eclipse Comics Eclipse Magazine #3, 7 (1981–1982) Sabre #7, 8 (1983)

Last Gasp Strip AIDS U.S.A. (1988)

Marvel Comics

The Brotherhood #1–3, 7–9 (2001–2002) Marvel Fanfare #40 (one page) (1988) Uncanny X-Men #252 (1989) Wolverine: Killing #1 (1993)

Epic Comics A1 vol. 2 #3 (1992) Blood: A Tale #1–4 (1987) Clive Barker's Book of the Damned: A Hellraiser Companion #4 (1993) Clive Barker's Hellraiser #1, 4 (1989–1990) Epic Illustrated #19, 29, 33 (1983–1985) Havok & Wolverine - Meltdown #1–4 (1988–1989) Shadowline Saga: Critical Mass #3 (1990)

New Media Publishing The Comic Times, Media Showcase #7 (1981)

Pacific Comics Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers #12 (backup story) (1983)