Researching Scott Williams

Williams was born in Los Angeles, California, and grew up in Santa Barbara. He began painting with watercolor in high school, and studied art and anthropology at Santa Barbara City College, Cabrillo College, and Sonoma State University. He moved to San Francisco in 1979 and began to work in color xerox. He lived at the Goodman Building, the last of San Francisco's artist hotels, and was present for its closing and evictions in 1983. The long battle between the Goodman Building's tenants and the City, which owned it, ultimately led to passage of 1988 Live/Work legislation, which made it easier for artists to live in commercial zones.

In 1983, Williams moved to Los Angeles and collaborated with Didier Cremieux on a large painting called "History of the World" which was featured in Immigre magazine. In 1984, he moved to Santa Barbara, continued painting and helped to run Talk Gallery. By 1985 he was back in San Francisco, where he developed a handmade comic series with the characters Robot Dog, Cyber Kitty, and Mean Mouse.

During the early 1990s, Wiliams collaborated with the artist Rigo on a series of large murals for the DNA Lounge, including one called the Philip K. Dick Tribute mural. In 1991, Williams was the subject of a documentary called "Spraypaint" by Nick Gorski. In 2005, Williams received the Adeline Kent award and was given a retrospective exhibit at the Walter and McBean Galleries of the San Francisco Art Institute.

In the late 1990s, health problems forced Williams to abandon spray paint for airbrush and he began to focus on smaller paintings and books. Williams' collaborative hand-painted books include "Gemstone Fever" (2003), "Horses West" (2005) "Amerika Cup" (2006) with Fred Rinne "Collect Call from the Spirit World" (2006) and "Watch Your Step" (2007) with Fred Rinne and Dana Smith.

In 2012, the interior of Williams' Mission District home was reproduced at Steven Wolf Fine Arts.