Philemona Williamson
Suspicious Touch, 2024
Oil on canvas
48 x 72 in (121.9 x 182.9 cm)
Copyright The Artist
'This painting had me thinking about the ways in which we touch and hold things and the way people can touch and influence us. The sense of touch is something...
"This painting had me thinking about the ways in which we touch and hold things and the way people can touch and influence us. The sense of touch is something that is primal -- from the moment a baby is held skin-to-skin with its mother to the final touch of a loved one when they are passing. It is so vital to have that human contact in all the ways we grow and change. We are touched both physically and emotionally by so many people around us in this life. A mere glance can also influence our feelings. It becomes all the more important to hold, to embrace and to really feel the humanity around us." - Philemona Williamson on Suspicious Touch
With Philemona Williamson (b. 1951, New York, NY) two recent paintings poetically titled, Compass Set, and Suspicious Touch, she invites the viewer to use their imagination to try to interpret their complex narratives. Continuing her storytelling, she populates the paintings with children and adolescents, beautifully encapsulating themes of time and memory, revealing fleeting moments that are once unknown but relatable. The paintings inspire infinite tales as her subjects intertwine with our own experiences. The lush color palette and dreamlike positioning of the figures ensure that their vulnerability - of age, of race, of sexual identity - is seen as strength and not as weakness.
Philemona Williamson was most recently highlighted in Season 41, Episode 6 of PBS’s “State of the Arts” as well as in an episode of the Smithsonian’s “ArtNation” series. Since the 1990s Williamson has had many solo shows and has been represented in important group exhibitions alongside such contemporaries as Whitfield Lovell, Kerry James Marshall, and Kara Walker. In 2019, her mid-career retrospective was held at the Montclair Art Museum, NJ; she collaborated with author Marilyn Nelson to create a series of paintings for the children’s book “Lubaya’s Quiet Roar” (Penguin Random House). She receives numerous awards and residencies including the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Pollock-Krasner, National Endowment for the Arts, and New York Foundation for the Arts. Williamson also served on the advisory board of the Getty Center for Education. She has shown in institutions including The Queens Museum of Art, The Bass Museum in Miami, and the Contemporary Art Museum, in St. Louis. Williamson’s work is in museum collections including the Montclair Art Museum, NJ, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, MI, Mint Museum, NC, Smith College Museum of Art, MA, Hampton University Museum, VA and Sheldon Art Museum, NE. Her public works include murals for the MTA Arts in Transit Program. Art & Object named her in the “10 Contemporary Black Artists You Should Know More About”. From 2016 to 2022 she taught painting at Pratt Institute and Hunter College in New York.
With Philemona Williamson (b. 1951, New York, NY) two recent paintings poetically titled, Compass Set, and Suspicious Touch, she invites the viewer to use their imagination to try to interpret their complex narratives. Continuing her storytelling, she populates the paintings with children and adolescents, beautifully encapsulating themes of time and memory, revealing fleeting moments that are once unknown but relatable. The paintings inspire infinite tales as her subjects intertwine with our own experiences. The lush color palette and dreamlike positioning of the figures ensure that their vulnerability - of age, of race, of sexual identity - is seen as strength and not as weakness.
Philemona Williamson was most recently highlighted in Season 41, Episode 6 of PBS’s “State of the Arts” as well as in an episode of the Smithsonian’s “ArtNation” series. Since the 1990s Williamson has had many solo shows and has been represented in important group exhibitions alongside such contemporaries as Whitfield Lovell, Kerry James Marshall, and Kara Walker. In 2019, her mid-career retrospective was held at the Montclair Art Museum, NJ; she collaborated with author Marilyn Nelson to create a series of paintings for the children’s book “Lubaya’s Quiet Roar” (Penguin Random House). She receives numerous awards and residencies including the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Pollock-Krasner, National Endowment for the Arts, and New York Foundation for the Arts. Williamson also served on the advisory board of the Getty Center for Education. She has shown in institutions including The Queens Museum of Art, The Bass Museum in Miami, and the Contemporary Art Museum, in St. Louis. Williamson’s work is in museum collections including the Montclair Art Museum, NJ, Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, MI, Mint Museum, NC, Smith College Museum of Art, MA, Hampton University Museum, VA and Sheldon Art Museum, NE. Her public works include murals for the MTA Arts in Transit Program. Art & Object named her in the “10 Contemporary Black Artists You Should Know More About”. From 2016 to 2022 she taught painting at Pratt Institute and Hunter College in New York.