In this Episode of Art is Awesome, Host Emily Wilson spends time with gallerist and painter Griff Williams.
Welcome to Art is Awesome, the show where we talk with an artist or art worker with a connection to the San Francisco Bay Area.
Today, Emily chats with Griff Williams, Griff Williams, a Bay Area artist, curator, and the founder of Gallery 16, which operated in San Francisco for over 30 years.
Griff discusses his upbringing in a political family (his father was a longtime Montana congressman) and why he chose art over politics, attending the San Francisco Art Institute and opening Gallery 16 in 1993 as a multi-disciplinary space for visual art, performance, and music. He reflects on the gallery's mission to champion artists over luxury sales, and describes the 2021 documentary *Tell Them We Were Here*, made with his son Keelan, which profiles eight Bay Area artists tackling social issues like environmentalism, racism, and prison reform through their practice.
Griff also addresses the recent closures of the San Francisco Art Institute and California College of the Arts, calling them devastating losses for the region's creative economy and cultural identity. He argues that elected officials are largely indifferent to working artists—many of whom are "the working poor" juggling multiple jobs—while public funding tends to favor large institutions like symphonies and ballets over small galleries and nonprofits. Now living in Sonoma with more studio time, Griff continues to curate, including the exhibition *Rex Ray: We Are All Made of Light* at the Monterey Museum of Art, and remains a passionate advocate for the Bay Area's arts community.
About Artist Griff Williams:
Griff Williams is an American multidisciplinary artist, painter, filmmaker, publisher, and gallerist, based in San Francisco. Known for his layered, textural abstract paintings that explore perception, memory, and form through color, surface, and material, Williams has built a career spanning painting, curatorial work, and publishing.
Williams is the eldest of three siblings, raised in Montana’s rugged landscapes by Pat Williams, Montana’s longest-serving U.S. Congressman, and Carol Williams, the first female majority leader in the Montana SenateHe earned a BFA from the University of Montana in 1984 and an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute in 1993.
Williams’s paintings often use a reimagined “paint-by-number” approach with poured resin and stenciled enamel, producing graphic, optically complex surfaces reminiscent of vintage postcards grokipedia.com. His work engages with abstraction, place, and narrative, blending craftsmanship with conceptual inquiry. He has also directed the 2021 award-winning documentary Tell Them We Were Here, focusing on socially engaged Bay Area artists.
In 1993, Williams founded Gallery 16 in San Francisco, later expanding into Urban Digital Color. For over three decades, the gallery became a hub for contemporary art, exhibiting works by artists such as Margaret Kilgallen, Paul Sietsema, and Michelle Grabner. Through Gallery 16 Editions, he published influential monographs, including The Gay Seventies: Hal Fischer (2019) and Rex Ray (2020).
Williams has taught at the California College of the Arts, San Francisco Art Institute, and Mills College, and his work has been exhibited in venues such as the San Diego Museum of Art and San Jose Museum of Art. His writing and public speaking address arts policy and cultural issues in the Bay Area.
His work has been featured in Artforum, Art in America, Frieze, and Artnews. He is recognized as a key figure in San Francisco’s contemporary art scene, combining artistic practice with advocacy for the arts and regional cultural history
Visit Griff's Website: GriffWilliams.com
Follow Griff on Instagram: @WilliamsGriff
Learn More about Gallery16 - CLICK HERE
Learn More about exihibit Rex Ray: We Are All Made of Light - CLICK HERE
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About Podcast Host Emily Wilson:
Emily a writer in San Francisco, with work in outlets including Hyperallergic, Artforum, 48 Hills, the Daily Beast, California Magazine, Latino USA, and Women’s Media Center. She often writes about the arts. For years, she taught adults getting their high school diplomas at City College of San Francisco.
Follow Emily on Instagram: @PureEWil
Follow Art Is Awesome on Instagram: @ArtIsAwesome_Podcast
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CREDITS:
Art Is Awesome is Hosted, Created & Executive Produced by Emily Wilson.
Theme Music "Loopster" Courtesy of Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
The Podcast is Co-Produced, Developed & Edited by Charlene Goto of @GoToProductions.
For more info, visit Go-ToProductions.com