BRITTNEY LEEANNE WILLIAMS

Brittney Leeanne Williams joined us on the project in November 2021. Producing a series of oil works on canvas and board alongside a series of gouache on paper works, Williams explores the body through real, imagined, and surreal landscapes in conversation with grief, trauma, and exhaustion. Relying heavily on an urgent red colour palette, Williams' figures simultaneously refute the gaze and command attention for the Black woman’s experience. Alternating between abstraction and figuration, the figures' bent backs become archways and thresholds, creating an architecture that fuses the corporeal with the surrounding landscape. The work often incorporates settings from Williams' childhood in Pasadena, California, including her grandmother’s garden, lush despite the surrounding harsh terrain.

Solo exhibitions include How Far Between and Back, Monique Meloche, Chicago IL, 2021; The Hole, NYC, 2021; The Arch Is a Portal Is a Belly Is a Back, Alexander Berggruen, NYC, 2021; This Bitter Earth, Mamoth, London UK, 2020; To Tarry in Prayer/To Terri in Prayer, Zevitas Marcus, Los Angeles CA, 2019; Neither Free | Nor, Dittmar Gallery, Northwestern University, Evanston IL, 2017.

Selected group exhibitions include Stockholm Sessions, Carl Kostyál Gallery, Stockholm SE, 2021; Kathmandu Triennale, Kathmandu NP, 2021; Otherwise/Revival, Bridge Projects, Los Angeles, CA, 2021; Don’t Call Me Muse, Collaborations, Copenhagen DK, 2021; Ma Was Heavy, Newchild Gallery, Antwerp BE, 2020; This Sacred Vessel (pt. 3), Arsenal Contemporary, NYC, 2020; Enter Art Fair, The Hole, Copenhagen DK, 2020; Sit Still, Anna Zorina Gallery, NYC, 2020; We Begin with Noticing, Deli Gallery, Brooklyn NY, 2020; Garden of Six Seasons, Para Site Gallery, Hong Kong, 2020; Second Smile, The Hole, NYC, 2020; No Time Like the Present, PUBLIC Gallery, London UK, 2020 and Quarters, Alexander Berggruen, NYC, 2020, amongst others.