NEW YORK, NY.- Recent Paintings by Philemona Williamson, visual conundrums intrigue with depictions of the edginess of curiosity, imagination, and present-day actuality. The exhibition opened at the June Kelly Gallery, 166 Mercer Street, on April 7 and will remain on view until May 10.

Williamson, longtime fascinated with the phenomenon of pubertal development and its inevitable progression toward adulthood, fittingly portrays accompanying emotional stages – ambiguity, uncertainty, vulnerability.

In this body of work, Williamson’s fabled energetic adolescent figures, yet raw with instinct, in throes of tension, in pause of wonder, on precipice of hesitancy, are joined with subjects appearing older, reflective of solemnity and awareness beyond immediacy of themselves.

Implications of the border between innocence and awareness, between pubescent youth and adolescent maturity blur (Cradle, 2021). Williamson is not hesitant in depicting vulnerability of the adolescent. She conveys pensiveness grappling with alienation and curiosity, amid commonplace tempests in the growth to maturity.

Capturing the complexity of moments in light of enormous social significance, Williamson draws attention to fragility. Sacrificing transparency, each of her encounters intrigue with a sensual urgency, opening the scope of her paintings to the wider world. The narratives cannot be understood as single acts alone for she depicts existence in uncertain terms, subject to forces beyond control unearthing place in scheme of history and destiny.

Williamson writes, “This series of paintings represents my continuing exploration of figures embodied in interpreted environments, with psychological and metaphorical
consequences.

Reflection, reevaluation, and renewal have defined recent years as the quiet in my studio expands beyond the uncertainty of life. Uninterrupted looking and thinking during the pandemic revealed sources and inspirations found in the gestural quality of Indian miniature paintings. Small gestures—the turn of a hand or a profile—set up a cycle of figurative relationships. Paintings are constructed with limbs akimbo, conveying the precarious nature of transitional movements and moments.

These adolescents are informed and challenged by the external events we encounter and try to make sense of as individuals and as a community. The paintings grapple with the struggle and promise of holding onto relationships because these bonds help you to survive. They explore the otherness and redefining of the self. The figures command the front of the picture plane, demanding to be seen. Apparent vulnerability is counterbalanced by the unexpected steadiness in taking an awkward stance. The paintings reflect my experience of transition; how one’s life takes a turn and a twist, and what we must hold dear amidst the tumult.”

Williamson, a native New Yorker, received a bachelor's degree from Bennington
College and a master’s degree in painting from New York University. Among her awards
are a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant, Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant and a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2017, a retrospective, Philemona Williamson: Metaphorical Narratives, organized by Montclair Art Museum, NJ, with catalogue and essay by chief curator Gail Stavitsky. Her work has been shown in many one-person and group exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad, including the IV Bienal International de Pintura en Cuenca, Ecuador, in 1994. She is represented in numerous private and public collections, including The Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina; Hampton University Museum, VA; Sheldon Art Museum, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA, Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey, and AT&T.

Philemona Williamson received a 2022 Fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.