Portrait by Sully Sullivan. WIRIS, outdoor installation.
Fletcher Williams III (b. 1987, North Charleston, South Carolina) is an artist working in sculpture and installation. He received his BFA from The Cooper Union in 2010 and returned to Charleston in 2013, where he lives and works, producing exhibitions in nontraditional spaces and developing site-specific installations in response to the city’s architectural and historical landscape. His work is held in the collections of the International African American Museum, Gibbes Museum of Art, Davidson College, South Carolina Aeronautical Training Center, and the 701 Center for Contemporary Art Public Art Trail.
Though he spent formative years in New York, Williams’s work is rooted in Charleston and the Lowcountry. He uses both everyday and culturally specific materials—such as rusted tin, wood, sweetgrass, palmetto fronds, and fencing—alongside field recordings and industrial materials like steel, glass, acrylics, and LED lighting. These materials recur throughout his practice, creating a consistent, regionally informed visual language across small works on paper to large-scale installations.
Williams has presented solo exhibitions at the International African American Museum, the Aiken-Rhett House Museum, and the 701 Center for Contemporary Art, and has exhibited at The Mint Museum, MoCADA, and the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art. He is a 2021 South Arts Southern Prize State Fellow.