a little about

Based in London since 1994, contemporary art critic, editor and teacher Dr. Gilda Williams has been a Senior Lecturer on the MFA in Curating programme, Goldsmiths College (2009-23). She has also taught at the frieze academy, Sotheby’s Institute of Art, the Ruskin School of Art, Oxford University, and in the Guardian’s Masterclass series, among many others.

Her book How to Write About Contemporary Art (Thames&Hudson, 2014), now in seven languages, has been described as ‘the little red book everyone in the art world should have’ (Art Monthly, Feb 2015). A longtime London correspondent for Artforum magazine, she has also written for The Guardian, Time Out, frieze, Sight and Sound, Art in America, Parkett, Tate etc., Burlington, and many more. In 2020 she was an Evaluator for the Arts Writers Grant Program, The Andy Warhol Foundation | Creative Capital, New York.

Williams has given talks worldwide, principally on her specialist area of interests (art writing, Andy Warhol) at Tate Modern and Tate Britain; Royal Academy; Serpentine Gallery; the ICA; NYU Abu Dhabi; UCL Qatar; Garage MCA; Moscow; Hangar Bicocca, Milan and more.

Edited anthologies include Fiona Tan, With the Other Hand. A Reader (Snoeck, 2020);  ON&BY Andy Warhol (MIT/Whitechapel Press; 2016), a selection of 50 key writings on and by the most influential artist of the 20th century; and The Gothic (MIT/Whitechapel, 2007), on the Gothic spirit in contemporary visual culture.

From 1994-2005 Williams was Editor and Commissioning Editor (from 1997) for contemporary art for Phaidon Press, London. In 2013 she was a judge on the Max Mara Art Prize for Women Artists; in 2014 a nominator for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation Awards for Artists; in 2018 a judge for the Other Art Fair. Since 2016 Williams is a member of the Whitechapel Gallery Ventures Board, and the Advisory Board for the Contemporary Painters series, Lund Humphries art publishers, New York.

Dr. Williams is co-author of The Art Book for Children (Phaidon, 2005) which is translated into ten languages and was awarded an English Association prize for Best Non-Fiction Children’s Book in 2006. 

From 2023 Williams’ main activity is a textile-based studio art practice.

contact: info [at] gildawilliams.com

left, Gilda Williams, from the series The Blind Man, Gabriele DiMatteo, 1997

from the archive:
Venice Biennale, 1993. Gilda Williams working with (l. to r.) Francesco Bonami, Nicolas Bourriaud, and James Lee Byars (1932-1997).      Photos: Mario Gorni. (Thanks for digging these up Mario!)