Rate My Professor Justene Williams

Justene Williams is a Senior Lecturer and Head of Sculpture at the Queensland College of Art and Design within Griffith University's Arts, Education and Law group. She holds a Master of Visual Arts (2006) and Postgraduate Diploma (1992) from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, as well as a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Art) from the University of Western Sydney (1991). With a distinguished artistic practice spanning over 30 years, Williams is renowned for her large-scale immersive live works, video performances, installations, and sculptures. Her oeuvre deconstructs the avant-garde 'total artwork' through the female body, incorporating elements of domesticity, absurdity, found objects, and improvisation to explore contemporary cultural realities. Williams' early photographic works captured public recreational sites such as shopping centres, car shows, and strip clubs, evolving post-2005 into elaborate costumes, performance videos, and immersive environments referencing modernism and Dada.

Williams boasts an extensive exhibition record, featuring solo presentations such as 'Making Do Rhymes With Poo' at Te Uru Waitakere Contemporary Gallery, Auckland (2024); the monumental public sculpture 'Sheila', a five-metre-high bronze installation at Brisbane's Queen’s Wharf precinct unveiled in 2024, inspired by Sheela-na-gig figures symbolizing fertility and protection; 'If I’m going to hell you’re coming with me' at KNULP, Sydney (2023); 'The Curtain Breathed Deeply', a major commission touring ten Australian venues from 2014 to 2018; 'Bighead Garbageface Guards Ghost Derr Sonata' at the Art Gallery of New South Wales (2009); and 'Handbag Hammer Meditation' at La Centrale Powerhouse, Montreal (2013). Group exhibitions include the 20th Sydney Biennale (2016), Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art (2002, 2010), Performa 2015 Australian Pavilions Without Walls in New York, 'Know My Name' at the National Gallery of Australia (2021), 'Pleasure and Reality' at the National Gallery of Victoria (2015), and 'Embodied Knowledge' at Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2022). Her works reside in prominent collections including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, National Gallery of Australia, and Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki. As an educator and artist, Williams profoundly impacts Australian contemporary art and visual arts pedagogy.