Born and raised in Greenville, South Carolina, William lives and works in Atlanta, Georgia. He studied at the Atlanta College of Art and Design where he received his BFA in Painting and Printmaking in 1996. He received his MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2003.
He has had exhibitions in the United States and abroad including the Nexus Biennial at the Nexus Contemporary Art Center in Atlanta, GA; Century Gallery in London, England; and Hammonds House Gallery in Atlanta, GA. He has had solo exhibitions at the Chattahoochee Valley Art Museum in La Grange, Georgia and at Mission Space in Baltimore, MD.
William also teaches drawing at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland.
Installation of William Downs: Sometimes It Hurts
Selected solo exhibitions
2011 at ease, Parker Jones Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2009 a world I never made, Slag Gallery, New York, NY
2008 fly away fly away, Artspace, New Haven, CT
2003 Drawings, Tevis County Gallery, Westminster, MD