Michael Kelly Williams creates sculptures, works on paper, and prints. His art is inspired by music, literature, nature, and the art of the African diaspora. He draws heavily from the art of the ancients and folk art. Concepts that interest him are the spiritual in art, environmental concerns, equality, justice, and Afrofuturism. He grew up in Detroit, Michigan, where he attended Cass Technical High School. He has a B.F.A. from the University of Michigan and an M.F.A. from Brooklyn College. He also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Williams has had residencies at The Studio Museum in Harlem, Materials for the Arts in Long Island City, and Wave Hill in the Bronx. He received the first Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop Legacy Publishing Fellowship at the Elizabeth Foundation and was awarded a Pollock-Krasner Grant. His work can be found in several museums and institutions, such as The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York; The Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; The Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Williams has been commissioned for various permanent installations, including two mosaic murals located at the Intervale Subway Station (2/5) in the Bronx as well as several glass murals in P.S. 82 Hammond School in Queens, New York. His work has been exhibited in China, Morocco, Canada, India and Japan.