William is the primary instructor at ZAFA, other teachers are periodically invited to teach specific workshops, give lectures, or as teaching assistants for larger classes.
Born in Providence, Rhode Island, William was exposed to art and painting at early age through the artwork of his mother, Val Brewer, who painted regularly and had a studio in his childhood home. Always interested in art, he attended a variety of art classes at the local collage, the Rhode Island School of Design.
At thirteen William and his family moved to Oahu where he was enrolled at Punahou high school. While in high school he explored sculpture, life drawing and glassblowing. After graduating in 2006 he traveled to California to continue his studies at Laguna College of Art and Design where he majored in fine art.
William went on to become a student instructor in the school, graduate summa cum laude in 2010 and be awarded best senior painting in the school’s annual Best of the Best juried show. After graduating In 2010, William then traveled abroad to Florence, Italy to study at the Florence Academy of Art’s three year classical Atelier program. While there, he was again awarded several scholarships to be a student instructor and was again awarded best painting of the year in 2012, his graduating year.
Through both of his experiences in these schools William gained a love for teaching and enjoys boiling down the complexities of fine art and traditional techniques into understandable underlying principles that can be taught in a straight forward, nuts and bolts type way.
After graduating, William returned to Oahu and started his own school and studio, Zwick Academy of Fine Art, in downtown Honolulu in order to bring what he had learned back to the art community in Hawaii. In addition to organizing and teaching classes at his school, he has also been invited to lecture a Punahou School, Windward Community College and has been invited to lecture at the Maui Arts and Cultural Center.
William is both a gallery artist, with works on display on Oahu, as well as a commission portrait artist.
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