Tim Williams
Bogotá, 2023
acrylic on wood
48 x 23 x 4 inches
$ 5,000
C-lective Curator’s Cut:
Bogotá is part of Tim Williams' Travelin' Man series, where every ticket serves as a visual diary of a place and the memories collected there. Vibrant colors, layered graphics, and playful iconography—from gold bars and travel references to his unmistakable graffiti-style OPTIMIST tag—capture the energy of the city while revealing the artist's own experience within it. A quietly rendered figure stands in the background, almost becoming another layer of the journey itself, as though the traveler is absorbed into the places he visits. Like much of Williams' work, Bogotá blurs the line between a boarding pass and a personal archive, transforming the souvenirs of travel into a celebration of curiosity, adventure, and the stories we bring home.
Tim Williams, aka OPTIMIST
We Love Tim. Tim, known in the art world as OPTIMIST, is an Oakland-based, mixed-media artist whose vibrant, pop-inspired work celebrates movement, identity, and the rhythms of city life. Merging graffiti aesthetics with the narrative flair of comic books, his art is rebellious, playful, and deeply rooted in human experience.
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Bachelor’s in Conceptual Information Arts, San Francisco State University
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Worldwide practice spanning 15 years, creating mixed-media, layered works informed by graffiti, comic books, and daily life
Extensive travel, especially to Taipei and other cities, directly inspires his Travelin’ Man series
Featured in his successful solo exhibition “Travelin’ Man” at RVCA Gallery, San Francisco
Presented at Context Art Fair, Miami (2023)
"I always saw my art as a way to connect with people—on walls, in sketchbooks, wherever I happened to be."
Tim’s Travelin’ Man series is a dynamic chronicle of cities and experiences, capturing the energy of place through motion, memory, and bold mark making. Influenced by street art, zine culture, and pop art, his work is both spontaneous and deliberate, layered with color, texture, and storytelling. From Oakland to Osaka, each piece reflects not just the spirit of a location, but also Tim’s evolving relationship with the world around him.
C-lective is proud to present the a selection of Travelin’ Man series, along with a broader selection of Tim’s works that continue to celebrate movement, identity, and connection.