CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS

Three children in the backseat of a car on their way to school, a brown shag carpet on brown ceramictiles, wheat stalks in the spring, an exhibition wall, three Michelin tires, three stock pots, one greensuitcase, and a yellow frying pan: an exhibition of works by Christopher Williams, on view at the HongKong gallery.

Deeply political and historical, Williams’s work addresses the visual and informational structures thatdefine everyday life. Working in a variety of media, including photography, video, and installation, hismultifaceted practice incorporates references to multiple sources and precedents, including the artist’sown ever-expanding inventory of imagery and discursive materials.

Many of the works that will be on view in Hong Kong are from a body of work Williams developed in the2010s that were informed by the artist’s interest in two important Cold War era publications: Ty i Ja (Youand I), a Polish magazine created by the Women’s League that focused on domestic life, fashion, andculture, and Lui (Him), a French pinup magazine specialising in female nudes and erotica, which was

source material for Guy Debord’s influential 1974 situationist film La Société du Spectacle (Society of theSpectacle).

Epitomising, while also critically undermining, many discursive binaries within Cold War society—such assupposedly male versus female content, and Eastern soviet versus Western capitalist culture—theseseemingly disparate but influential magazines served as source material for Williams, who, over thecourse of several years, assembled detailed archives devoted to each. Laid out on large tables within hisstudio, they became a kind of visual play script, which was then adapted to produce these photographicworks—some closely recreating his source materials, and others recasting their formats andstructures—that reflect on the social conditions of modern life.

The exhibition in Hong Kong, the artist’s first solo show in Greater China, follows standard pose, at DavidZwirner Paris in 2021, and Footwear (Adapted for Use), at the gallery’s 34 East 69th Street location inNew York in 2020, and will mark his eleventh solo show with David Zwirner. In spring 2021, Williams’ssolo exhibition werbung: adapted for use was on view at Haubrok Foundation, Berlin, and from 2019 to2020, C/O Berlin presented a solo show titled MODEL: Kochgeschirre, Kinder, Viet Nam (Angepasst zumBenutzen).

Christopher Williams was born in Los Angeles in 1956. Since 2000, his work has been represented byDavid Zwirner. He has had ten solo exhibitions at the gallery.

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 in2014, 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 bythe Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards, for the two volumes specially designed andpublished 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, Germany (2018); La Triennaledi Milano (2017); ETH Zurich, Institute gta, Zürich (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); Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (2005); MuseumBoijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (1997); and Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, Ohio (1995).

Museum collections which hold works by the artist include The Art Institute of Chicago; CarnegieMuseum of Art, Pittsburgh; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,Washington, DC; Ludwig Museum, Cologne; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; MuseumModerner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Solomon R.Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. He lives andworks in Cologne and Los Angeles.