William Rhodes (sculptor)

Last updated
William Rhodes III
Born1966 (age 58–59)
Baltimore, Maryland, US
Education University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
University of the Arts
Baltimore School for the Arts
Known forSculpture, quilts, furniture, drawing, painting
Awards California Arts Council
San Francisco Arts Commission
Website William Rhodes
William Rhodes, Woman in Labor, Carved wood, pencil, paint, thread on paper and neon glass, 48" x 26" x 6", 2025. William Rhodes Woman in Labor 2025.jpg
William Rhodes, Woman in Labor, Carved wood, pencil, paint, thread on paper and neon glass, 48" x 26" x 6", 2025.

William C. Rhodes, III (born 1966) is a Baltimore-raised, San Francisco-based sculptor and mixed-media artist. [1] [2] His artistic production includes sculpture, assemblage, quilting, collage, painting and drawings, which draw upon African American, African and folk traditions as well as his background in furniture design. [3] [4] [5] Critics describe his art as committed to craft and meaning, collective memory, and the transmission of lived, often overlooked histories. [6] [5] [7] His recurrent themes of familial relationships, community, resilience and spirituality are rooted in Black experience and humanist values. [8] [1] [9] Juan Ramón López wrote, "Rhodes is a traveler whose work opens portals to the distant past … His carefully gathered layers of heritage are multigenerational memory montages assembled into altars of worship." [10]

Contents

Rhodes has exhibited at the Berkeley Art Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and de Young Museum, as well as craft-oriented museums such as the Museum of Arts and Design (New York), Metal Museum and Lauren Rogers Museum of Art. [1] [11] [2] [12] His art belongs to the collections of the Crocker Art Museum, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, Reginald F. Lewis Museum, and Casa de Africa Museum (Havana), among others. [13] [2] [12] [5]

Life and career

Rhodes was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1966. During the eventful civil rights era between 1968 and 1978, his father, William C. Rhodes Jr., published The Black Times, a magazine showcasing the contributions of Black performers and activists; [7] [14] exposure to notable community and creative figures at the publication offices, including artist Joyce J. Scott, would inspire Rhodes's later work. [1] [15]

Rhodes attended the Baltimore School for the Arts, studying with the AfriCOBRA artist James Phillips. [16] [2] [17] He completed degrees in furniture design at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia (BA, 1989) and University of Massachusetts Dartmouth (MA, 1994). [8] [12] He began his career producing traditional, natural wood furniture but turned to more expressive, personal works in the early 1990s. [3] [2] [6] After studying abroad and returning to Baltimore in the late 1990s, he purchased and transformed an abandoned rowhouse into a living and exhibition space called Saint Paul Street Art & Design Gallery. [4] [6] [17]

In 2008, Rhodes moved to San Francisco and became involved in community service in the Bayview-Hunters Point area, teaching art in public schools and intergenerational senior services programs. [18] [7] [19] He co-founded 3.9 Art Collective in 2011, a group of Black art professionals, in response to the city's declining Black population. [20] [18]

Rhodes has had solo exhibitions at the Sanchez Art Center, Africa Centre London, Transmission Gallery (Oakland), African American Art and Culture Complex (San Francisco), and San Francisco Public Library, among other venues. [21] [14] [1] [6] He appeared in surveys including the 15th Havana Biennial (2024), "Ashe to Amen" (Museum of Biblical Art, 2013), "Power, Politics, and People" (BMA, 2000), and "Stop Asking" (1999, Museum of Arts and Design). [13] [22] [11]

Work and reception

William Rhodes, Womb to Tomb, Carved wood, paint, glass and copper foil, 84" x 48" x 12", 1993. Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture collection William Rhodes Womb to Tomb 1993.png
William Rhodes, Womb to Tomb, Carved wood, paint, glass and copper foil, 84" x 48" x 12", 1993. Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture collection

Rhodes's key areas of focus have been art furniture beginning in the 1990s, mixed-media sculptural assemblages beginning in the 2000s, and his later quilts. He has also produced drawings and paintings, which he frequently integrates into the other bodies of work. [23] [3] [1] Art writers link his work to artists of the African diaspora who use folk traditions and aesthetics to engage history and its ongoing effects, such as Betye Saar, Renee Stout, Joyce Scott and John Outterbridge. [9] [1]

Art furniture

Rhodes's furniture works blend craft, function and conceptual themes involving spiritual, mythical and universal human experiences. [3] [24] [11] [6] Incorporating painted and carved elements, mirrors, stones, gold leaf, glass and copper, they include reliquary-like boxes, folding screens, chairs, and shaped chests, cabinets, bookcases and vanities with tiny drawers and hidden compartments. [11] [3] [25] The forms and iconography Rhodes employs reflect diverse cultural, folklore and historical contexts and eras, including such things as Egyptian sarcophagi. [11] [2] [8]

In 2016, his figural folding screen, Womb to Tomb (1993), was acquired by the Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture. [2] [15] Nearly 7-feet-tall and made of carved wood, glass, paint and copper, the screen features small figures fit into larger carvings, a blue and green centerpiece representing earth and water, and glass panels depicting the seasons; when folded into the larger figure, the elements create a symbol of both womb and tomb and evoke the cycles of life. [2] [15]

Sculptural assemblages

Rhodes's sculptures largely take the form of wall-mounted assemblages crafted from found objects and rough-hewn recycled materials, carved figures, neon words, red thread, paint and drawings. [22] [26] [27] The sculptures draw upon the artist's box tradition exemplified by Joseph Cornell and Betye Saar and the altar-like, repurposed-object pieces of John Outterbridge. [1] [9] They employ loaded symbols, iconography and text expressing poignant or sardonic content (e.g., Gone Mother, 2017 or Woke, 2025) to convey stories of resilience and community, the legacies of Black culture and history, the value of generational experience and the psychic complexity of urban life. [27] [26] [28] His imagery often consists of stark black-and-white graphite portraits based in personal experiences that he punctuates with thick red thread evoking blood, womb ties or the stitching of wounds. [1] [9] [28]

In sculptures like Onward Christian Soldiers (2018) and Mama (2019), for example, Rhodes invoked conflicting associations involving the cross—allusions to nurture and a KKK cross-burning he witnessed—using carved forms and images of a Black Baptist church deaconess and a robed white supremacist. [9] Artist and author Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle commented, "Experiencing Rhodes's work is akin to visiting an herbalist's sacred apothecary. Within his highly curated altar spaces, one is looking at both the cure and the poison." [9] The assemblage Women and Labor (2025) played on the dual meanings inherent in the title, juxtaposing a central image of two young Black women wearing welding helmets, the word "Mother", balls of red thread (one strand embroidered into the shape of a heart), and hand-carved, fertility-like mermaid figures flanking the box. [1]

Quilts

William Rhodes, The Black Times (Nina Simone Quilt), Paint, ink and thread on fabric, 60" x 72" x .5", 2025. William Rhodes The Black Times-Nina Simone 2025.jpg
William Rhodes, The Black Times (Nina Simone Quilt), Paint, ink and thread on fabric, 60" x 72" x .5", 2025.

Rhodes has employed quilting as a tactile, historically rich medium for storytelling and fostering community engagement in intergenerational and international projects. [7] [19] Curator Melorra Green called the work "a sacred an act [of] remembrance … to stitch together stories and bring forward portraits of people who deserve to be seen … a living archive." [14] The quilts combine rectangular pieces of found fabric and personal images from Rhodes or collaborators—often period and contemporary portraits—to tell stories of known and everyday people rising to an historical moment. [19] [1]

His Black Times Quilt – 1971 Edition (Nina Simone) referenced his father's periodical, while the Hunters Point Shipyard Quilt (2024) featured images of Black shipyard workers who flocked to Bayview in the early 1940s (many fleeing the Jim Crow south) for jobs in aid of the war effort. [1] [19] It was part of the collaborative "Shipyard Quilts Project", which involved historian Stacey Carter and Bayview seniors who had a connection to the shipyard. [19] Rhodes and Carter adapted the project to create a coloring book, Hard Hat Heroes (2025). [29] Rhodes has led other community quilting projects in Key West, Egypt, Cuba, and in South Africa, the Nelson Mandela International Quilt Project. [7] [15] [30] For his 2025 Africa Centre in London exhibition, Rhodes collaborated with artist and Black Panther Party Minister of Culture Emory Douglas. [14] [7]

Rhodes's drawings sometimes serve a similar commemorative function as his quilts; his exhibition "Unexpected Beauty in Baltimore" (2007) featured 33 expressive crayon drawings of local musicians, some forgotten, on found napkins and ephemera from venues in the city. [23] [17] [31] [32]

Collections and recognition

Rhodes's work belongs to the collections of the Africa Centre London, Casa de Africa Museum, Crocker Museum, Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, New Bedford Art Museum, Reginald F. Lewis Museum and San Francisco Arts Commission, among others. [5] [13] [7] [33] [34]

He has received awards and grants from the California Arts Council, [35] San Francisco Arts Commission, [36] Alliance for California Traditional Arts, [37] ArtSpan, [38] Awesome Foundation, [39] Center for Cultural Innovation, Southern Exposure, and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. [40]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Morris, Barbara. "William Rhodes: Saints and Heroes", SquareCylinder, July 17, 2025. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Owens, Donna. "Woodworker by Trade, Artist by Choice", Baltimore Sun, December 4, 2016, pp. 1, 4. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Large, Elizabeth. "Artful Furniture", The Baltimore Sun, September 29, 1996, p. B3.
  4. 1 2 McNatt, Glenn. "An Artistic Renovation", The Baltimore Sun, April 3, 2005, p. 8T.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Aliyu, Hassan (ed). Threaded Memories through the African Diaspora – William Rhodes, London: The Africa Centre in London, 2025.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Paskin, Murray. "Woodwork, spirituality fuse in Rhodes' artistry", San Francisco Examiner, January 9, 2013. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Leeman, Hugh. "William Rhodes", Roborant Review, August 13 2025. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  8. 1 2 3 Harris, Joanne. "William Rhodes", American Visions, April/May 1999, pp. 21–22.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Hinkle, Kenyatta A.C. "William Rhodes: Apothecaries of the Historical Present", Ben F. Jones and William Rhodes, Greenvale, NY: López Publishing, 2021, pp. 39–49. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  10. ↑ López, Juan Ramón. "Honor Bound: The Reverent Art of William Rhodes", Ben F. Jones and William Rhodes, Greenvale, NY: López Publishing, 2021, pp. 39–49. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Scott, Joyce J., and The Society for Contemporary Crafts, Stop Asking We Exist: 25 African-American Craft Artists, Pittsburgh, PA: The Society for Contemporary Crafts, 2000, pp. 49–50.
  12. 1 2 3 López, Juan Ramón (ed.). Ben F. Jones and William Rhodes, Greenvale, NY: López Publishing, 2021. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  13. 1 2 3 Oakland Art Murmur. "Artist's Talk – William Rhodes: Saints and Heroes", 2025. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  14. 1 2 3 4 Green, Melorra. "Reflections on Community, Collaboration, Curating", Threaded Memories through the African Diaspora – William Rhodes, London: The Africa Centre in London, 2025.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Manchanda, Catharina, and Cecilia Wichmann. Joyce J. Scott: Walk a Mile in My Dreams, New Haven and London, CT: Yale University Press, 2024, pp. 242–243, 270. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  16. ↑ Baltimore School for the Arts. William Rhodes, Alumni. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  17. 1 2 3 Hunt, Stephen. "Unexpected Beauty in Baltimore", Calgary Herald, December 17, 2007.
  18. 1 2 Wong Yap, Christine. 100 Stories of Belonging in the S.F. Bay Area, Berkeley, CA: Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society at UC Berkeley, 2019, pp. 28–29.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 Velazquez, Jose Alonso. "People We Meet: Bayview's seniors taught William Rhodes how to party and quilt," Mission Local, June 28, 2025. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  20. ↑ Blue, Max. "Black Magic at San Francisco Arts Commission," The Potrero View, April 2022.
  21. ↑ Lee, TaVee. "William Rhodes: Throughlines looking back, reaching forward", Sanchez Art Center, 2025. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  22. 1 2 King-Hammond, Leslie (ed). Ashe to Amen: African Americans and Biblical Imagery, New York: Museum of Biblical Art, 2013, pp. 41–42.
  23. 1 2 Fisher, Harold. "Tooting Baltimore's Horn", The Baltimore Sun, October 10, 2007, pp. 22–23.
  24. ↑ Johnson-Sterrett, J.D. "Art and Furniture Combine at Tobechi", Metropolitan Business News, December 15, 1997, p. 6.
  25. ↑ Fehrenbacher, Gretchen. "Against the Grain", The Standard Times, May 29, 1997, pp. B1, B3. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  26. 1 2 Bookhardt, D. Eric. "Queen Selma at Scott Edwards: The Raw and the Cooked", The New Orleans Advocate, January 25, 2016.
  27. 1 2 Abbott, Cindy. "Pacifica's Home for Transformative Art Experiences", Coastside News, April 2, 2025. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  28. 1 2 Biel, Sara, and Wanda Sabir. Colossus Freedom: An Anthology of Voices Across The Carceral Wasteland, Oakland, CA: Colossus Press, 2022, pp. 42–43.
  29. ↑ Carter, Stacey, and William Rhodes. Hard Hat Heroes: African American Workers at Hunters Point Shipyard. San Francisco: Shipyard Trust for the Arts, 2025. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  30. ↑ O'Hare, Timothy. "Community Quilt", The Key West Citizen, October 27, 2021, p. 1, 8C.
  31. ↑ Herring, Nakia. "William Rhodes Shows the 'Unexpected Beauty in Baltimore'", The Baltimore Times, October 19–25, 2007, p. 15.
  32. ↑ Reader, Ruth. "Unexpected Beauty in Baltimore", City Paper, October 24, 2007, p. 35.
  33. ↑ San Francisco Arts Commission. "Community History Quilts, William Rhodes", Objects. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  34. ↑ López, Juan Ramón (June 2021). Making Visible the Connections. Greenvale, NY: López Publishing. p. 68. ISBN   978-0-578-74973-0.
  35. ↑ California Arts Council. California Arts Council 2018-2019 Artists in Communities Project Descriptions, Sacramento, CA: California Arts Council, 2019.
  36. ↑ San Francisco Arts Commission. William Rhodes, Artists. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  37. ↑ Alliance for California Traditional Arts. Grant. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  38. ↑ ArtSpan. William Rhodes, Artists. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  39. ↑ The Awesome Foundation. "SF African American Senior Narrative Quilt Project," Projects. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
  40. ↑ Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. "William Rhodes", Artists. Retrieved August 14, 2025.
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