William Villalongo
Whether making collages with black velour paper or acrylic paintings that are largely composed of cuts, William Villalongo’s artworks are composed of flurries of fragmented motifs. Taken together, they cohere into images of one of history’s most contested forms: the black body. In many of the artist's portraits, black bodies emerge from a tumult of white negative space in ways that evoke leaves, branches, feathers, and slashes. In other artworks, such as We Can’t Breathe (2015)—which is made up of thirteen separate framed silkscreens on coloring book pages that describe the human respiratory system—the artist invokes the power of representation while echoing the dying words of Eric Garner, a black American killed by New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo in 2014.
In 2016, Villalongo co-curated Black Pulp!, a traveling exhibition of nearly a century's worth of black image production on paper by black publishers, black artists and non-black artists, with fellow artist Mark Thomas Gibson. In the artist’s own words the exhibition—which traveled to USFCAM in 2017—“highlight[ed] historical efforts within the medium to rebuff derogatory image culture with exceptional wit, beauty, and humor, to provide emerging, nuanced perspective on black humanity.”
— CVF, USFCAM
“The layering of the global Sars-CoV-2 pandemic and the nationwide protests over the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, and Breonna Taylor and countless black persons at the hand of the police and white supremacists has made me more resolved in my practice as an artist, teacher, family member, and citizen. Not too much has changed for me as an artist except the space I am working in, my apartment, which has served as a studio before. In that way, I am reminded that I have achieved some long-desired and outsized dreams for a blue-collar Black kid from South Jersey, whose Mother supported a family with public assistance, shift work, and love, and worried whether she’d see her children when she got home. As a tenured Professor, I am privileged to have work at a time when so many are losing their jobs, and I am sometimes overwhelmed, yet overjoyed that I can be a resource of support and advice for my students past and present who are trying to process and respond thoughtfully to the profound sadness of this moment. As a citizen, I am making donations, signing petitions, I’m social distancing, and wearing a mask in public; I have joined in peaceful protest and I have dedicated myself to doing work that requires consciousness and patience. I am cooking, reading, and making. I am fortunate that myself and loved ones are safe and well for now, and I want to say to anyone reading this that we will get through this, and there will be more battles ahead, so remember to take care of yourself.”
— William Villalongo
William Villalongo, 2018. Courtesy of Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC; Photo by Argenis Apolinario, NYC.
About William Villalongo
(Hollywood, Florida, 1975; raised in Bridgeton, New Jersey)
He lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.
William Villalongo explores themes of love, empathy, and renewal, and often uses references to traditional African masks and Renaissance perspective in his work to orchestrate a conversation between history and art. He is the recipient of the prestigious Louis Comfort Tiffany Award and the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptor's Grant. His work is included in several notable collections including the Studio Museum in Harlem (New York), The Whitney Museum of American Art (New York), and the Princeton University Art Museum (Princeton, N.J.). His work has been reviewed in Art In America, The New Yorker and The New York Times. Villalongo is an Associate Professor at The Cooper Union School of Art in New York.
Artist website: villalongostudio.com
Artist Instagram: @wvillalongo
Gallery website: inglettgallery.com