Christopher Williams

Maxwell Graham is pleased to present Werbung: A 48 Hour Display of Quality Framing Materials, which presents, for the first time, ‘Provisional Prop: Formal Public Disclosure’ and marks the announcement of the availability of Christopher Williams’ adaptation of Franz Xaver Kroetz’s 1971 play Inklusive for broadcast on radio. It also debuts Werbung Poems, published by Maxwell Graham and Buchhandlung Walther König, along with wall coverings, radio, printed matter, picture frames, photographs, films, and arrangements.

Presented within a 48 hour time frame, these elements constitute a staging of materials for submission to the public record.

Christopher Williams was born in Los Angeles in 1956. He lives and works in Cologne and Los Angeles. In spring 2021, Williams’s solo exhibition Werbung: Adapted for Use was on view at Haubrok Foundation, Berlin, and in 2019 to 2020, C/O Berlin presented a solo show titled Model: Kochgeschirre, Kinder, Viet Nam (Angepasst zum Benutzen).

Christopher Williams: The Production Line of Happiness marked the artist's first major museum survey, which spanned thirty-five years of work. The exhibition was first on view at The Art Institute of Chicago in 2014, followed by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and Whitechapel Gallery, London in 2015.

Also in 2014, Williams was the first artist to receive the Photography Catalogue of the Year, presented by the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, for the two volumes specially designed and published on the occasion of his touring survey, The Production Line of Happiness (exhibition catalogue) and Printed in Germany (artist book).

Other solo exhibitions include those held at Kestner Gesellschaft, Hanover (2018); La Triennale di Milano (2017); ETH Zurich, Institute gta, Zurich (2017); Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen, Germany (2011); Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium (2011); Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Germany (2010); Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2010); Kunsthalle Zürich (2007); Museu Serralves, Porto, Portugal (2006); Secession, Vienna (2005); and Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (2005).

Museum collections which hold works by the artist include The Art Institute of Chicago; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Ludwig Museum, Cologne; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Williams is represented by David Zwirner, New York/London/Hong Kong, and Galerie Gisela Capitain, Cologne.