About
Adam Williamson is an award-winning calligrapher and sculptor whose practice encompasses geometry, carving, and pattern-making, and whose work has been exhibited and commissioned internationally.
Trained in calligraphy, geometric design, and stone and wood carving, his work is grounded in the study of proportion, tessellation, and the underlying principles that shape natural and architectural forms. Through hands-on craftsmanship, his practice seeks to articulate universal patterns found in nature and culture, expressed through carefully balanced structures and finely resolved surfaces.
He works from his East London studio, where he develops new commissions and runs occasional studio workshops and live online sessions. Alongside this, he leads immersive international study journeys dedicated to the close study of pattern and craft traditions, taking participants deep into India, Uzbekistan, and Morocco. He has led more than sixty of these journeys, fostering sustained, place-based engagement with historic architecture, artisanal practices, and living cultural landscapes.
Williamson has received commissions from a wide range of cultural, academic, and public institutions, including HRH the Prince of Wales, New York University, Spotify (USA), the University of Oxford, Shakespeare’s Globe, Kew Gardens, Westminster Abbey, the British Council, and the UK Foreign Office in Vienna.
He has also realised a number of permanent public artworks across the UK, including a major project for Sustrans in Wales.
Williamson has served as a sessional lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, and has delivered workshops and public lectures at leading institutions in the UK and internationally, including the British Museum, the University of Cambridge, the British Library, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, New York University, Spotify (New York), and the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha.
He currently teaches live online courses in geometric drawing and craft traditions, which have been reviewed in The Wall Street Journal. Recordings of past classes are available through this website.
Having grown up in a family of artisans, Adam Williamson has travelled extensively to collaborate with artists and craftspeople from diverse cultural traditions. His work has taken him to sites of historic and contemporary practice including Mount Athos in Greece, Granada in Spain, Fez in Morocco, and Istanbul in Turkey. He has also been the subject of a documentary that follows his travels in Malaysia and Indonesia, where he studied local woodcarving traditions.
Williamson has worked as a consultant in Jamaica on a PSTA-funded project supporting a collective of Jamaican woodcarvers, and led a year-long programme in British Columbia, Canada, focused on indigenous craft practices and dialogue with community Elders. He has also undertaken consultancy projects in China and Azerbaijan, centred on the documentation and preservation of traditional craft skills.
His work has been presented in numerous solo and group exhibitions internationally. Selected major exhibitions include:
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Carpet Pages II: Roots
Mile End Art Pavilion, East London, UK -
In Search of the Dot that Created the Circle: Geometry in Nature
BOA Gallery, West Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA, USA -
Absolute and Infinite: New Interpretations of Geometric Designs
The MADI Museum, Dallas, TX, USA -
Geometric Moon Jungle (Solo Exhibition)
The King’s Foundation, Shoreditch, London, UK -
Art Fair Sharjah
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
The MADI Museum, 3109 Carlisle Street, Dallas, TX