Herb Williams American, b. 1973

Herb Williams was born in Montgomery, AL, in 1973. Every summer from the age of twelve to graduating from high school at eighteen, he worked in construction, which gave him a deep understanding of form and materials. Mr. Williams received a BFA in sculpture from Birmingham-Southern College, and there apprenticed under two professional sculptors off-campus. Upon graduation the artist immediately went to work at a bronze foundry in West Palm Beach, FL. There he cast hundreds of sculptures with the atelier Popliteo and the last work of art by photo realist Duane Hanson, “Man on Riding Lawnmower.” Herb Williams then moved to Nashville, TN, where he has lived and created art since 1998. Mr. Williams received The Joan Mitchell Foundation Museum Purchase Grant in 2005, the Next Star Artist Award in 2008, and was sponsored by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2011. 

Although the artist works with many different mediums and materials, Herb is one of the only individuals in the world with an account with Crayola. He creates original sculptures out of individual crayons that may require as many as hundreds of thousands. Mr. Williams artwork hold records with Ripley’s and Guinness . His sculptures have been placed in public arenas, such as children’s hospitals, corporate lobbies, museum walls, and the White House. 

The press and acclaim the crayon sculptures have garnered has reached as far as China, England, Canada, Belgium, Germany, Australia, Croatia, and Japan. His work was featured at an Inaugural art exhibit in Washington, DC, with Shepard Fairey, and recently he opened “Plunderland”, a walk-in room installation consisting of almost 500,000 crayons at an art gallery in Chelsea. Mr. Williams just completed a large-scale outdoor installation at the National Ranching Heritage Center in Lubbock, Texas, which dealt with the wildfire devastation, and raising awareness for education, safety, and future planning. Herb is currently planning to create a new outdoor sculptural project in Texas and Colorado in 2013 that deal with water conservation, drought, and flooding. A two-year six-city tour of his artwork throughout China beginning in 2014 is being scheduled now. Herb Williams is currently represented by The Rymer Gallery in Nashville, TN.