Christopher Williams-Wynn

Christopher Williams-Wynn is a Research Fellow in the interdisciplinary programme 4A Laboratory: Art Histories, Archaeologies, Anthropologies, Aesthetics at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz – Max-Planck-Institut (September 2023–June 2025). He holds a PhD in History of Art and Architecture from Harvard University (2023). His research investigates the intersection of media, aesthetics, and political epistemology in modern and contemporary art, with a current focus on colonial genealogies in ecological art.

Research Interests: Williams-Wynn explores how media challenge disciplinary knowledge structures, particularly through systems thinking (cybernetics, information theory) in late 20th-century art. His project Metabolic Aesthetics examines colonial legacies in plant-based ecological artworks circa 1970, analyzing transregional histories of land use and material exchange.

Grants & Support:

• DAAD
• Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
• David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies
• Krupp Foundation
• Institute for Studies on Latin American Art

He contributes to the 4A_Lab research team, focusing on transcultural approaches to art history and collaborating with Berlin-based archives and museums.