Today we’d like to introduce you to Philemona Williamson
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
My name is Philemona Williamson. I am a narrative painter, educator, wife, and mother. I have been very fortunate to have had a mother, husband, and now two adult children who have given me the constant love, support, energy, and encouragement to pursue my art career. They are my heart and soul. The life of an artist is a rollercoaster of emotions — add to that a black female artist and it’s even more challenging. My supportive family is vital to me to continue to take risks and be vulnerable, to be rejected and then get up the next day and go to the studio with confidence.
I attended high school at Music & Art, Bennington College for my BA, and NYU for a Masters. it is deeply rewarding for me to be at this point in my career and still be excited about painting, and also have an appreciative audience for my work. The viewer experience and participation in community are vital to me.
This past year has been a year filled with a multitude of wonderful acknowledgements of my work as a painter and educator. I was thrilled to learn that I would receive the Dorothy Height Distinguished Alumni award from NYU Steinhardt school where I received my Masters. The presentation of the award at graduation was moving, and speaking in the beautiful Radio City Music Hall to the graduates lifted me into another realm.
I was also honored at the Montclair Art Museum (MAM) Gala this year. This felt like recognition for the culmination of all my work over the years. Being honored in my town, surrounded and supported by family, friends, and peers was very meaningful. A wonderful exhibit, Century: 100 Years of Black Art at MAM, in which I have a painting is on display at MAM. All of this happened while my New York solo show at June Kelly was on view. I was pleased to be reviewed by Riad Miah in Two Coats of Paint.
Two weeks later, I was off to Brest, France for a solo show at Manor de Kerlaouen, Lesneven curated by Loic Le Gall, Director of Le Passerelle Centre d’art Contemporain, Brest. This was my first museum exhibit in France and it was more than I could have imagined. The reception to my work was thoughtful and genuine. I was struck by how much one’s cultural history shapes visual perception. In Brest, the race of the figures was not the focus of comments, rather viewers, press, and critics responded to the universality of the emotions depicted in the narratives. I am so grateful to my Semiose Galerie for introducing my work to the museum.
My paintings continue to focus on the tumultuous time of adolescence; a time of wonder, awkwardness, and hopefulness. The narratives have always embraced the marginalized in our society. There has always been ambiguity in the gender and race of my figures. Recently, with a transgender child, I have looked closely at the fragility of gender. I find myself playing with the ambiguity in a more deliberate way. I recently heard the word biomythography which Audre Lorde uses to describe work. This is the perfect description of my narratives. My work is inspired by my own personal experience and mythology.
To this day my practice is my sanctuary. I enter my studio each day excited by the possibilities of the paintings that will emerge from the canvas.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
As a female Black figurative/narrative painter interested in telling the personal stories of the journey of adolescence, it is neither surprising nor unique that I have encountered challenges along the way. I have faced obstacles both regarding the style of my work and its content. At a time when abstract art was favored by many of the established galleries, I was (and still am) painting in a figurative and narrative approach. It was also a time when the fluidity of gender and skin color were not as accepted as they are now. The multi-layered and metaphorical subject matter of my work also seemed to make it challenging for the art world to put a label on it at the beginning.
On a personal level, for me the challenge is staying true to my vision and not allowing myself to be disrupted by outside voices. I appreciate the entire process of starting a painting, working at it, following the many changes that inevitably occur; I appreciate the work of painting. Facing obstacles head on is something I have learned to do. In the end, I must trust myself.
Following my own personal path was a choice I made early in my career. It has likely created a slower career arc, but I have had the opportunity to grow and develop my work without outside pressure. And the work has been noticed and supported by many. I have received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, and most recently, Anonymous Was a Woman. I’m proud to have my work included in the collections of the Mint Museum, the Montclair Art Museum, the Sheldon Museum of Art, and the Baltimore Art Museum and others.
Despite the challenges and obstacles, these points of recognition have fueled me along the way. And there were always people who looked at my work and felt it spoke to them. That continues to be a big motivation.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
My paintings interpret and investigate the emotional journey from childhood to adulthood, inventing
narratives with adolescent figures of ambiguous gender and race. Coming of age is
intense and tumultuous, presenting both a visceral and metaphoric experience of the life
stages we all experience. I draw on childhood, memory, my ethnicity, and my response
to our evolving world. I think of the paintings as poetic narratives that take viewers on an
unexpected journey to a place that is almost familiar — but not quite, one that allows
them to drop their emotional guard and be vulnerable, to reenter a time when the
presence of possibility was intoxicating
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
I was introduced to art in junior high school by a wonderful painter, Joan Thorne. I fell in love with the decision-making process of painting. Junior high school is such a transitional time for children, for me it was fraught not only with the normal issues: my father had just been diagnosed with cancer. I felt very helpless and not in control of anything. The art room became the one place where I had control. The one place I could make my own decisions, work on them, and have a finished product.
Because of the influence of my junior high school teacher and the ones at Music & Art, I have a great passion for arts education. I have worked as a teacher for most of my career. teaching every age level. I started at the Harlem School of the Arts teaching a parent /child class modeled after the program Doing Art Together designed by Muriel Silberstein Storfer. Muriel was my mentor and taught me so much about a humanistic approach to art education. I went on to work with Doing Art Together in many ways, teaching in halfway houses, prisons, and in underserved public schools in New York City. I am now on their Board of Directors. I served on the Getty Center for Education in the Arts Advisory Board from 1989 —1998.
I taught in MFA programs at Bard, Parsons, and Pratt ,and undergraduates at RISD, Cooper Union, School of Visual Arts, and Hunter College. Working with students of all ages has been one of my great joys. To be able to guide a young person on their path to creating ignites my spark and makes me recall the excitement I feel every time I start a painting.
I am represented by Galerie Semiose in Paris, June Kelly Gallery in NYC and Jenkins Johnson Gallery in San Francisco. I am pleased to have the opportunity to show my work in all of these wonderful venues and reach a diverse audience. A solo show at Jenkins Johnson Gallery in SF is scheduled for 2025.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://philemonawilliamson.com
- Instagram: @philemona8
Image Credits
n/a