PHILEMONA WILLIAMSON
Represented by Galerie Semiose (Paris) / Jenkins Johnson Gallery (California) / June Kelly Gallery (New York)
https://semiose.com/en/artist/philemona-williamson/
https://www.jenkinsjohnsongallery.com/artists/83-philemona-williamson
https://www.junekellygallery.com/williamson/
Artist Film Bio (2023 / 6 minutes) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF52L0I_Okw
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2025 (Fall) The Project Room, Galerie Semiose, Paris
2024 Philemona Williamson: Recent Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, NYC
2024 Philemona Williamson: Sweet Dreams, Passerelle, Centre d'art contemporain, Lesneven, France
2023 Philemona Williamson: The Borders of Innocence, Galerie Semiose, Paris
2022 Recent Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, NYC
2021 Philemona Williamson: Entangled In Truth, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2019 Foreman Gallery of Contemporary Art, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY
2019 Drumthwacket Foundation (NJ Governor’s Mansion) Princeton, NJ
2017 Career Retrospective: Philemona Williamson: Metaphorical Narratives, Montclair Art Museum, NJ
2017 Hovering Tales: Recent Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, NYC
2017 Philemona Williamson, Stone Center for Black Culture & History, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2015 Black & Colored: Recent Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, NYC
2013 Philemona Williamson: New Works, Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, Wilmington
2012 Philemona Williamson, Holtzman MFA Gallery, Towson University, Towson, Maryland
2010 Fractured Tales, June Kelly Gallery, NYC
2009 Philemona Williamson Exhibition, Delaware County Community College, Media, PA
2008 Philemona Williamson: Sudden Passages: New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, NYC
2006 New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, NYC
2003 New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, NYC
2001 Philemona Williamson, Amelie A. Wallace Gallery, State Univ. of NY, College at Old Westbury, NY
2000 New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, NYC
1999 Philemona Williamson...And What She Found There, Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin
1998 Recent Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York, New York
1995 New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York, New York
1994 Philemona Williamson: Fables and Fantasies, Hypo-Bank, New York, New York
1993 Inaugural Exhibition, Flushing Council on Culture & Arts, New York, New York
1993 Selected Paintings, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania
1992 New Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York
1992 Powers Art Gallery, East Stroudsburg University, Pennsylvania
1991 Philemona Williamson Paintings, African American Museum, Hempstead, New York
1991 Paintings, June Kelly Gallery, New York, New York
1991 Philemona Williamson: Through the Looking Glass, Southampton College of LI Univ., NY
1989 Philemona Williamson, Wenger Gallery, Los Angeles, California
1988 Philemona Williamson: Recent Paintings, The Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Engagées, Fondation Villa Datris, Vaucluse, France
2025 Toutes Lettres Bues, H2M Art Center, Bourg-en-Bresse, France
2025 Art Paris art fair, Paris: Galerie Semiose
2025 MAZE Art Gstaad art fair, Switzerland: Galerie Semiose
2025 ArtGeneva art fair, Switzerland: Galerie Semiose
2024 Art Basel Miami, Jenkins Johnson Gallery
2024 Second Nature, Galerie Semiose, Paris
2024 The Culture From Which I Sprang, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2024 Art Brussels art fair, Belgium: Galerie Semiose
2024 Drawing Now art fair, Paris: Galerie Semiose
2024 100 years of Black Art at MAM, Montclair Art Museum, NJ
2024 The Women of June Kelly Gallery, NYC
2024 Entangled Gaze, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2024 ArtGeneva art fair, Switzerland: Galerie Semiose
2023 Paris+ by Art Basel art fair, Paris: Galerie Semiose
2023 Je ne suis pas ce que tu vois de moi, Fondation Frances, Clichy, France
2023 Sins of the Fathers, Taymour Grahne Projects, London
2023 Cyclical Bloom, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2023 EXPO CHICAGO, International Exposition of Contemporary & Modern Art: Jenkins Johnson Gallery
2023 Drawing Now Art Fair, Carreau du Temple: Galerie Semiose, Paris
2023 The Minotaur’s Daydream, Galerie Semiose, Paris
2022 Body Burdens, NYU Gallatin Galleries, NYC
2022 Narrative Images: Wendell Jeffrey & Philemona Williamson, RVCC Art Gallery, Branchburg, NJ
2022 The New Drawing Room, MassArt x SoWa, Boston, MA
2022 Claiming The Narrative, The Visual Arts Center, Summit, New Jersey
2021 ART FAIRS: Frieze London OVR / Armory show NYC / Miami Art Basel: Jenkins Johnson Gallery
2021 Octavia Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2021 Paradise Island, Steven Harvey Fine Arts Projects, NYC
2021 Podium ll, Gallery 181, San Francisco, CA
2020 Sit Still, Self-Portraits in the Age of Distraction, Anna Zorina Gallery, NYC
2018 10 Years 10 Artists, Octavia Art Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2018 Serenading Summer, June Kelly Gallery, NYC
2017 Converging Voices: Gender and Identity, Hoftstra, Long Island: Hofstra University Museum
2016 Selections from the Mott-Warsh Collection, The Visual Arts Center, Summit, NJ
2016 Visions of our 44th President Barack Obama, traveling exhibition, organized by Charles H Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan
2010 Shrew’d: Survey of American Woman Artists, Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, Nebraska
2010 American Celebrations of Childhood, Hofstra University Museum, Hempstead, New York
2009-12 A Complex Weave: Women and Identity in Contemporary Art, traveling exhibition organized by Rutgers-Camden Center, Rutgers University, Camden, New Jersey
2007 Crossing the Line: African American Artists in the Jacqueline Bradley and Clarence Otis, Jr. Collection, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, Winter Park, Florida
2005 Five Contemporary Voices in A New Space, Delta Arts Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina
2004 A Universe of Art, organized by Corporate Art Directions, Credit Suisse First Boston, New York
2004 Unveiling the Image: Multicultural Women Artists, Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ
2003 Growing Up: Childhood in American and Native American Art, Montclair Art Museum, New Jersey
2000 Collector’s Choice II: Orlando Museum of Art, Florida
1999 Drawing in the Present Tense, Aronson Gallery, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY, traveling exhibition
1998 Postcards from Black America, Center for Contemporary Art in Breda, Netherlands, and the Frans Hals Museum, Haarlem, Netherlands
1998 Walk the Walk: Mentoring Youth in Art, Forum for Contemporary Art, St. Louis, Missouri
1997 Women In Full Effect, sponsored by RUSH Philanthropic Art Foundation, New York, New York
1996 Bearing Witness: Contemporary Works by African American Women Artists, traveling exhibition, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, Georgia
1996 Real: Figurative Narratives in Contemporary African-American Art, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, Florida
1996 The Boat, Object and Metaphor, Pratt Manhattan Gallery, NYC, and the Rubelle and Norman Schafler Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, New York
1994 Current Identities: Recent Paintings in the United States, 1994 Cuenca International Bienal of Painting, Ecuador, organized by Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ
1992 Present Tense, UWM Fine Arts Gallery, The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
1988 Alice And Look Who Else Through the Looking Glass, Bernice Steinbaum Gallery, New York
PUBLIC AND CORPORATE COLLECTIONS
Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
The Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, West Palm Beach, FL
Montclair Art Museum, Montclair, NJ
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia
Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
Sheldon Art Museum, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, Massachusetts
Mott-Warsh Art Collection, Flint, Michigan
Reader’s Digest, Pleasantville, New York
Art in Embassy Program, US State Department, Madagascar
AT&T, New Jersey
SPECIAL PROJECTS/COMMISSIONS
2020 Childrens book illustrations “Lubaya’s Quiet Roar” Penguin Random House
2016 Poetry in Motion, MTA Arts & Design, New York, New York
2015 Visions of Our 44th President Barack Obama, bust, Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, Detroit, Michigan
2006-2007 Seasons, six fused-glass panels, commissioned by MTA Arts & Design, Livonia Ave MTA Station, Brooklyn, New York
2003-2004 Folktales From Around the World, four glass mosaic murals, 6 feet x 15 feet & 6 feet x 8 feet, commissioned by NY State School Construction Authority & NYC Dept. of Cultural Affairs Percent for Art Program
1994 Union Square poster, MTA Arts & Design, New York, New York
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2024 NYU Steinhardt: Dorothy Height Distinguished Alumni Achievement Award
2024 Montclair Museum of Art Spring Gala Honoree
2022 Anonymous Was A Woman Grant
2022 New Jersey State Council on the Arts Fellowship
2015 Artists-in-Residence Program, Joan Mitchell Center, New Orleans
2008 Bau Institute, Residency, Otranto, Italy
1997 Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in Painting , New York, New York
1993-1994 Ludwig Vogelstein Grant, New York, New York
1994 MTA Arts & Design Poster Commission, Union Square Station, New York, New York
1991 New York Foundation for the Arts, Fellowship in Painting
1989- 1990 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New York, New York
1988 AIM, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York Artists Space, Exhibition Grant , NYC
1987-1988 National Endowment for the Arts , Fellowship in Painting, Washington, DC
1983 The Millay Colony for the Arts, Artist-in-Residence, Austerlitz, New York
TEACHING/CONSULTING
2023 - Present Visual Arts Center of NJ, Board of Directors
2019 - Present DoingArtTogether, NYC, Board of Directors
2017- 2022 Pratt University, Painting, New York
2017- 2022 Hunter College, Painting, New York
2017-2003 Doing Art Together, NYC, Instructor
2017-2016 Hunter College, Visiting Professor, Narrative Painting, New York, New York
2007-2012 School of Visual Arts, Drawing and Painting, New York, New York
1989-1998 The Getty Center for Education in the Arts/Advisory Board, Los Angeles, California
1994-1996 New York State Council on the Arts/Visual Arts Panelist, New York,
1994 Parsons School of Design/Visiting Artist/MFA Program, New York, New York
1992 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts/Juror/Art Fellowships, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
1992 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill/Visiting Artist, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
1992 Parsons School of Design/Adjunct Faculty/Freshman Foundation Drawing, NYC
1991-1992 Cooper Union/Adjunct Faculty/Freshman Foundation Painting, New York, New York
1991-1992 Parsons School of Design/Adjunct Faculty/Freshman Foundation Drawing, NYC
1991 Bard College/Painting Faculty/Milton Avery Grad School of the Arts, Annandale-On-Hudson, NYC
1990 Flushing Council on Culture & Arts, New York/Panelist, Artist Colonies Seminar, Flushing,NYC
1990 National Endowment for the Arts, Panelist/Services to Arts/Artist Communities Panel, Wash DC
1989-1990 RISD/Adjunct Faculty/Freshman Foundation Drawing, Providence, Rhode Island
EDUCATION
MA, New York University, New York
BA, Bennington College, Vermont