Join us in the Fibers and Material Studies Department for the Queer Materials Lab Artist Talk by William Toney.

William Toney’s work explores abstractions that underlie modes of Black cultural production. Engaged in ideas such as Utopia, Opacity, and Afrofuturism, Toney’s practice seeks to deconstruct notions of a monolithic Blackness.

Toney’s work is a lens-based, interdisciplinary practice that examines conceptual interpretations of modes of Black cultural production. By engaging with different methods of examining Blackness, ideas ranging from opacity to Afrofuturism, Toney deconstructs the notion of a singular Black experience.

William Toney is an artist, educator and arts organizer from Kansas City, Missouri. Toney currently lives and works in Philadelphia, PA. He earned an M.F.A. from Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 2024. He also holds a B.F.A. in photography from the University of Missouri–Columbia in 2012. Toney has exhibited his artwork nationally, and he has also had solo exhibitions of his work at Automat Collective in Philadelphia, PA, as well as UMKC Gallery of Art and HAW Contemporary (both based in Kansas City, Missouri). William Toney has been the recipient of several local artist residencies and fellowships, including the Makerspace Residency at Temple University and the Charlotte Street Studio Residency in 2020.