Artwork
Artist Statement: This building has had several lives. In the past, WERD radio and SCLC, two historically active organizations that aided the Civil rights movement, were housed in the Prince Hall Building. I wanted to summarize the history through an abbreviated animation highlighting the accomplishments.
In my work I like to use a range of source materials — commercial illustration, portraits, hip hop and civil rights images — to explore themes of liberation, community and joy despite systemic racism and oppressive forces. With this installation, I wanted to highlight the building’s history as a center for the community’s politics, and a platform for social change.
Fabian Williams aka Occasional Superstar is an artist born and raised in Fayetteville, NC, now living in Atlanta, GA. Fabian received a BFA from East Carolina University in Illustration. After working for 13 years in the advertising industry with a long list of clients from Nike, Warner Bros to HBO, he decided to move to a purely expressive practice, where he had the freedom to express more political and socially relevant contemporary themes. Assessing and updating the Black Arts Movements’ centering of a racialized aesthetic, Williams’ vibrant art interrogates both the liberatory and oppressive forces at play in black American life.
He exhibited his Contraption series of paintings, film and sculpture at Notch 8 Gallery in 2016, and In 2017 he co-created the #Kaeperbowl mural campaign during Super Bowl 53 in acknowledgement of protests sparked by Colin Kaepernick.
Fabian’s Atlanta mural projects have long garnered national attention and even debate over the First Amendment’s ability to shield public art—as highlighted in the New York Times. He has been featured in The Guardian, BBC, L.A. Times, New York Times, Playboy, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, SB Nation, Bloomberg, The Root, and various media outlets for his bold work and activism.