Aaron D. Williams Explores His Cleveland Identity Through Artwork

East of Cleveland, a local artist is carving out space for introspective, multidimensional work — art layered with color, symbolism and vulnerability.

Aaron D. Williams, artist and founder of artist collective Young Cleveland Renaissance, also known as Aawful Aaron, found his way into art early. He picked up a pencil, took to drawing very naturally and never put it down. Today, Williams blends colored pencil, marker and paint to create pieces that reflect on identity, personal growth and city culture.

“I was more concerned with making work that had the natural rhythm that I feel is so inherent in Cleveland's culture,” Williams, 32, says. “Also, interrogating American culture through my lens of ‘I have to live through these systems and create.’”

His work has appeared across Northeast Ohio, including at the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, MGK Day and in public art displays in AsiaTown. Soon, Williams’ work will be on display again at the Summit Artspace’s 5th annual BIOPIC+ exhibition in Akron.

The installation Scorporation is Williams’ second solo show and an exhibition of artwork he has created since his MOCA Cleveland debut in 2021. The multimedia installation will incorporate drawings, paintings and video.

“It feels like this is my sophomore album in the sense of being able to return with a full-body narrative,” he says. “Being able to share that publicly with everyone means a lot to me.” 

For Williams, the exhibition marks both a reintroduction and an evolution. 

“It’s really exciting just to share this, what feels like very vulnerable and transformative work, with the community, as I'm also going through changes in my career and life,” Williams says. 

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Williams describes one of the pieces, “Surrender,” as the entry point into this new body of work. The colorful portrait displays a cross-section of a man’s head and torso — a lime green skull lurking like an X-Ray behind a face, alongside abstract illustrations of horses and women. 

“I look at ‘Surrender’ as track one. It is the introduction to this album,” Williams, who has also dabbled in hip-hop performance, explains. “‘Surrender’ is quite literally speaking to me as an artist, as an individual, surrendering to the fact that I was chosen to be a creative being in this lifetime.”

Scorporation will be on view May 14 through July 11, 2026, in Summit Artspace’s Betty and Howard Taylor Main Gallery.

“This is just the beginning of what is going to be a very intentional rollout of work,” Williams says. “I’m here to stay.”

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