William Powhida (b. 1976, New York) is a G-E-N-I-U-S and habitual critic of the art world. Powhida lives in Bushwick, has a studio in Williamsburg and exhibits in Chelsea. He studied painting at Syracuse University, where he easily received a BFA with honors, and scored an MFA from the cheap-assed, famed Hunter College program. (Getting honors there was a joke.) He has exhibited internationally in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, London, Madrid, Miami, Chicago and Copenhagen. Recent shows include Dirty Kunst at Seventeen Gallery, London; I Like the Art World and the Art World Likes Me at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York; Readykeulous: The Hurtful Healer: The Correspondance Issue at INVISIBLE-EXPORTS, New York; and If These Walls Could Talk — A Conversation, a contemporaneous exhibition at Marine Art Salon and Charlie James Gallery in Los Angeles.
He has organized exhibitions including #class and #rank with Jennifer Dalton, and Magicality with Eric Trosko. He also collaborated with artist Jade Townsend on the Lemonade Stand and the ABMB Hooverville drawing. His work has been discussed in the New York Times, Artforum, Art in America, the Brooklyn Rail, ARTnews, ARTINFO, Artnet, Hyperallergic and Art Fag City, among others. #class was discussed in depth in C Magazine. He completed a publishing residency at the Lower East Side Printshop in spring 2010, and he will be the lead artist at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center for a four-week residency on memory in July 2011. Exhibitions in 2011 include From Memory at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center in May, a solo project, a #class production with Jen Dalton at Contemporary Dublin in the fall and a New York solo exhibition.
He is represented in Seattle by Platform Gallery and in Los Angeles by Charlie James Gallery. He has completed negotiations with an awesome Chelsea gallery that will be announced soon. Follow him on Twitter, @powhida, if you can handle strong language.
