About

Wiliam Powhida (b. 1976, New York, NY, he/him) is an artist and arts worker whose work examines the paradoxes and ironies involved in the production of the ‘art world’.  Over the last decade and half he has been responsible or partly responsible for exhibitions including After the Contemporary at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Month to Month and #Class with Jennifer Dalton, and POWHIDA at Marlborough Gallery.  His recent exhibitions include Possibilities for Representation at Charlie James Gallery, Twenty Twenty at the Aldrich, and Complicities at Postmasters Gallery.  

Powhida is a co-host of the infrequent podcast Explain Me with Paddy Johnson exploring the intersection of art, money, and politics. He is a member of the Artists Studio Affordability Project, an artist-led advocacy group working towards commercial rent regulation.  He is currently teaching at the School of Visual Arts in the MFA Fine Arts program and a mentor with ILAP (International lab for Art Practices). Prior to entering higher education, he was a public high school art teacher in Brooklyn for 14 years.  

He is represented by Postmasters Gallery, Charlie James Gallery, Gallery Poulsen, and Platform Gallery. He holds a BFA in Painting from Syracuse University and an MFA in painting from Hunter College.  His work has been written about in the New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, The Los Angeles Times, Hyperallergic, ArtFCity, The Guardian, the New Yorker, New York Magazine, and October among other publications.  His editorial art work has been published in the Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic, The Baffler, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, and Dilettante Army.  His work is included in the collections of the Henry Museum,The Crocker Art Museum,  the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, The Orange County Museum of Art, and the JP Morgan Chase.