WILLIAM VILLALONGO
Zero Gravity 2, 2018
Acrylic, paper collage and cut velour paper
39 7/8 x 109 5/16 in. Sheet
45 1/2 x 114 3/4 x 2 1/2 in. Frame
45 1/2 x 114 3/4 x 2 1/2 in. Frame
Photo: Argenis Apolinario, NYC
Known for irreverent riffs on the art historical 'muse,' William Villalongo has made episodic paintings and works on paper which underscore historical erasure and reimagined narratives. Here Villalongo turns his...
Known for irreverent riffs on the art historical "muse," William Villalongo has made episodic paintings and works on paper which underscore historical erasure and reimagined narratives. Here Villalongo turns his attention to the Black male figure.
At a time when current events and statistics reflect a social reality of limited expectations, contingency, and disproportionate fear for the Black body, Villalongo reconsiders and modifies that body to circumvent corporeality. Within the dark tones of these meditations on physiology, the artist uses metaphors of invisibility, nature, and reformation as necessary conditions of Black male being. Like fallen autumn leaves, Villalongo's figures navigate their world, subject to an unpredictable wind - piling, spinning, re-collecting and migrating. Figures float in space, dreamlike, liminal, and ill-defined much like the accumulated notions of what it is to be Black in the world.
At a time when current events and statistics reflect a social reality of limited expectations, contingency, and disproportionate fear for the Black body, Villalongo reconsiders and modifies that body to circumvent corporeality. Within the dark tones of these meditations on physiology, the artist uses metaphors of invisibility, nature, and reformation as necessary conditions of Black male being. Like fallen autumn leaves, Villalongo's figures navigate their world, subject to an unpredictable wind - piling, spinning, re-collecting and migrating. Figures float in space, dreamlike, liminal, and ill-defined much like the accumulated notions of what it is to be Black in the world.
Exhibitions
"William Villalongo: Myths and Migrations," Grinnell College Museum of Art, Grinnell, IA, 26 January 2024 - 6 April 2024; traveled to the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, Madison, WI, 4 May 2024 - 18 August 2024; Museum of Art, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO, 13 September - 21 December 2024; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 15 May 2025 - 31 August 2025.Literature
Heinrich, Will. “Women Win at the Art Show,” The New York Times, 27 February 2019.