J. Brendan Williams, Le Flaneur du Jour ©,
was raised in New Haven,
educated at Vassar College,
California College of the Arts and
The School of The Art Institute of Chicago.

AWARDS
Blue Ribbon - Beecher Olympics 1974
Schlitz Beer Glass - North Haven Fair 1977
Presidential Scholarship - SAIC 2007

EXHIBITIONS
SFMOMA Staff Art Show - 1999, 2000, 2005, 2006
Cal. College of the Arts 1st Year Exhibition - 2006
SAIC MFA Exhibition - 2009

CAREER HIGHLIGHTTS
Disc Jockey WVKR-FM Poughkeepsie, NY - 1985-1990
Production Ass’t. - Social Distortion videos - 1992
Drummer - Kryptonite Nixon (Flipside Records)- 1993-1995
Registrar - San Francisco MOMA 1999-2007

ARTIST STATEMENT
What is art? What is a museum? While visitors come to marvel at masterworks, the caretakers see these objects every day. When the thrill of novelty dissipates into numb recognition the transition from museum visitor to museum worker is complete. Daily visitors are the freshest sight available under the museum roof. How do museums serve their audiences? Who are these audiences? How do people behave in museums and why do they go there? Are museums democratic or aristocratic? Are they sensoria, agora or both? Are they entertainment, educational supplements, showcases of privilege? Is there a vernacular thread within the rarefied fabric of museums? The layers of inquiry that go into researching a subject are reflected in the layers of meaning evident in a finished artwork. In this respect all museums are anthropological at root level. In 1897 former stockbroker Paul Gauguin created his epic masterwork D'ou venons nous? Que sommes-nous? Ou allons nous? These questions remain pertinent and answered only in part. Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? When we consider the workand the people and the architecture in a museum what do we do with it? Do we become part of the spectacle? Do we somehow own what we have seen for having lived through the experience? Do we have a legitimate claim to profit from this experience just as if we published a memoir? Here's something else to ponder: what is the substance of voyeurism as opposed to surveillance? What happens when art world insiders-- students, teachers, critics, curators, dealers and collectors-- all people who specialize in the creation and evaluation of art become the objects of contemplation. What happens when the signifier becomes the signified?