Nico Williams

Artist at Nico Williams

Speaker

Nico Williams, ᐅᑌᒥᐣ (b. 1989) is Anishinaabe and member of Aamjiwnaang First Nation community. He is currently working in Tiohtià:ke | Mooniyang | Montréal. He has a multidisciplinary, often collaborative practice that is centered around sculptural beadwork.

Williams is an active member in the urban Indigenous Montreal Arts community, a board member for the Biennale d'art contemporain autochtone (Contemporary Native Art Biennial), and a member of the Contemoprary Geometric Beadwork research team.

He has taught workshops at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, NSCAD University, the Indigenous Art Centre, Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC), and Carleton University.

His work has been shown internationally and across Canada, including at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Musee des beaux-arts Montreal, Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal, Victoria Arts Council (British Columbia), PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art (Tiohtiá:ke), La Guilde (Tiohtiá:ke) and his most recent solo exhibition, Chi-Miigwech at Never Apart (Tiohtiá:ke).

Williams’ practice has been featured by National Geographic (2018) and CBC (2021) and is housed in prominent public collections including Musee des beaux-arts Montreal, Musee d’art contemporain de Montreal, The Art Gallery of Ontario, Archives Nationales du Québec, the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation, and the Royal Bank of Canada Art Collection. His first public sculpture, Monument to the Brave, was commissioned in 2020 by the Sick Kids Foundation.

His work has been supported by the Canada Council, Conseil des arts de Montréal, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec Impetus Grant, The Ontario Arts Council and the Fluevog Artist Grant.