Artist's Statement
- Artist's Statement
Philemona williamson's paintings explore the tenuous bridge between adolescence and adulthood, encapsulating the intersection of innocence and experience at its most piercing and poignant moment. The metaphorical images focus on the transitional period of adolescence, when personal discovery and awareness collide with the force of worldly knowledge. The lush color palette and dreamlike positioning of the figures ensures that their vulnerability—of age, of race, of sexual identity—is seen as strength and not as weakness. [End Page 416]
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philemona williamson
At Arm's Length, 2017
oil on linen, 48 x 60 in.
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philemona williamson
A Patient Spirit, 2006
oil on linen, 48 x 60 in.
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philemona williamson
Tender Breeze, 2008
oil on linen, 48 x 60 in.
Collection of Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
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philemona williamson
Red Buckled Shoes, 2014
oil on linen, 48 x 60 in.
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philemona williamson
Round about Midnight, 2015
oil on linen, 48 x 60 in.
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philemona williamson
False Tender, 2018
oil on linen, 48 x 60 in.
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philemona williamson
Lilac Dream, 2011
oil on linen, 68 x 65 in.
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philemona williamson
Safe Passage, 2016
oil on linen, 48 x 60 in.
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philemona williamson is represented by the June Kelly Gallery, in New York City, and most recently was the subject of a retrospective, Metaphorical Narratives: Philemona Williamson, at the Montclair Art Museum, in Montclair, New Jersey. She has had many solo shows, including those at the Queens Museum (New York), the Stone Center (North Carolina), and the Institute of Contemporary Art Baltimore (Maryland), and has been the recipient of numerous grants, including those from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pollack-Krasner Foundation, and the Joan Mitchell Foundation. A graduate of Bennington College and New York University, she teaches painting at Pratt Institute and Hunter College in New York City and has served on the advisory board of the Getty Center for Education. She has been awarded several public art commissions, and her work is part of New York City's MTA Arts & Design program.
