Detroit may not be as well known as Paris or New York in art circles. But to local artist and educator Peter Williams, the city has inspired some of his best work.

Williams, associate professor, Art and Art History, College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts, Wayne State University, recently received one of the highest honors in America in the field of contemporary art - an invitation to contribute paintings to the 2002 Biennial Exhibition at New York's Whitney Museum of American Art.

Detroit provides a focus and background for Williams, whose works are politically charged.

"In my neighborhood, I see people continue to struggle with the quality of their lives, people who are down on their luck, suffer from mental and emotional handicaps, and have physical impairments," Williams says. "It's an experience that drifts in and out of my encounters on a daily basis. In some ways Detroit is a place for me to exist inside of and to paint from, to confront what's outside of myself."

The paintings are somewhat autobiographical, combining images of popular iconic images - Mickey Mouse, Big Boy and Aunt Jemima - with images of racial stereotypes. Although ideas and influences of Diego Rivera, Michelangelo, Goya and Velazquez can be found in his works, Williams has a unique style, one that frequently incorporates a theme of racism, challenging viewers to consider the history of stereotypes in America.

"I'm interested in the role race plays within our cultural and social structure," Williams says. "From the very beginning, I have searched for a way to represent myself in relationship to the events that surround the time in which I live."

Williams, who grew up in Nyack, New York, moved to Detroit in 1987 when he began teaching art at WSU. Williams had a typical middle-class upbringing, although his family was one of the few African-American families living in a predominately white suburb. "It was like living at a museum's doorstep," he says.

At the age of 20, he was seriously injured in a car accident and lost his right leg - a fact that shows up in his work in interesting ways; for example, a table symbolically is missing a leg.

Williams uses his experience as an accomplished artist to educate and nurture a passion for painting in his students. In 1989, he helped develop a summer art program at the Detroit Institute of Arts for inner-city high school students, introducing them to studio practice and painting concepts. His work with14 art students developing an 11,000-square-foot, three-dimensional painting for the Mercedes-Benz display in the Detroit, Barcelona and Frankfurt auto shows earned him an Excellence in Teaching Award from Wayne State in 1997.Most recently, he directed a group of University of Michigan art students in a public arts workshop in conjunction with urban designers and planners.

In return, his teaching has influenced his paintings in a way he never expected.

"Years of academic teaching forced me to reconsider painterly models that I had not considered as viable alternatives," Williams says. "Traveling helped me to see the relationship between painting and living."

The Wayne State University College of Fine, Performing and Communication Arts is educating the next generation of visual artists, musicians, communication professionals and professional actors and dancers. The college offers 16undergraduate and 12 graduate programs in Art and Art History, Communication, Dance, Music and Theatre with students benefiting from expert faculty and excellent resources such as the nationally recognized Hilberry Theatre.

Fast Facts

• Hometown: Nyack, New York
• Current Residence: Detroit, Michigan
• Education: Bachelor's degree, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
  Master's degree, Maryland Art Institute, Mount Royal College of Art
• Years teaching at WSU: 13
• Career Highlights: 9 national solo exhibitions, including Meadow Brook Art Gallery in 2000 and Revolution Gallery in Detroit in 2001, 39 national two-person or group shows, including the upcoming "Looking Forward Looking Black" at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum Biennial in New York City, 33 regional and local exhibitions. Paintings on display at the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minneapolis
• Honors/awards: Humanities Center Fellowship, Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award, Excellence in Teaching Award, Detroit Council for the Arts Urban Margins Grant