LaVon
Williams is known in Kentucky for many achievements. Basketball fans remember
him from the University of Kentucky basketball team that went on to win the
NCAA championship in 1978. Those that were middle school kids in Kentucky over
the past twenty years might have had the opportunity to learn about his art and
African culture as he worked in artist residency programs through the Kentucky
Arts Council and the Kentucky Folk Art Center. He is a wonderful mentor as an
athlete, artist and human being. However, his most lasting achievement can be
found in his low-relief African inspired woodcarvings, reinterpreting
traditions that were passed on to him by family members.
As a young man
in the 1970s, LaVon Williams adopted a distinct carved sculpture tradition from
coastal North Carolina inherited from his brother and their great uncle. That
tradition of the Gullah/Geechie cultures found its way to Kentucky with him by
way of rural Florida and urban Denver, Colorado as he grew up. He was also
influenced by the rhythmic abstractions of his grandmother’s quilts and
his father’s love of jazz.
Williams’ work, which began quite
small and compact, has always been figurative and exudes a certain musical
quality. As he began to be carried by galleries and exhibiting in more shows
his work got bigger and bigger and the colors became more vibrant and
vivid.
Adrian Swain, curator of the Kentucky Folk Art Center writes
about William's work in this way. “His work is dynamic. The human figure
–whether alone, in pairs or in larger groups is always the central focus.
The figure is almost always stylized, with facial features that are
unambiguously African-American. His characters move around, blend and fit with
each other perfectly. They form an exotic and erotic combination of funk and
grace.”
His work has been widely exhibited at the Outsider Art
Fair, New York; the National Black Fine Arts Exposition, Chicago; the Martin
Luther King, Jr. Performing and Cultural Arts Complex, Columbus, Ohio; the
Kentucky Folk Art Center, Morehead; the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft,
Louisville; Eastern Kentucky University, Richmond; Western Kentucky University,
Bowling Green, and the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center,
Wilberforce, Ohio. His work is represented by the Keny Galleries and Art
Exchange in Columbus, Ohio and is in the permanent collection of the Lucille
Caudill Little Fine Arts Library at the University of Kentucky. LaVon Williams
has also created the logo for the National Black Theatre Festival held annually
in Charlotte, North Carolina. His woodcarvings are in prominent private and
corporate collections throughout the nation.
“What woodcarving
gives to me that I give back to the community,” says Williams, “is a
sense of culture to pass on things that our ancestors had. There were
woodcarvers in Africa and they brought the same processes to America. I feel
like I’m in a line of people who carry on the process of creating out of
wood.”
The insight with which he records and interprets the world
through his art enables the rest of us to share in the reverence with which he
views the broader, human experience. La Von Williams’ art is an important
and valuable gift to us all.
Previous recipients: Harlan Hubbard, Robert S. Whitney, Alma Lesch, Helen Starr, Barney Bright, Ray Fry, Adale O'Brien, Paul Owen, John Tuska, Warren Hammack, Ed Hamilton, Minnie Adkins, David Livingston, George Zack, Lee Sexton, Lee Luvisi, Melvin Dickinson, Moses Goldberg, Arturo Alonzo Sandoval, Elizabeth Hartwell and Jay Flippin.