"Contemporary art is a new voice in an ongoing dialogue of artistic ideas. Every artist working today contends with, looks at, draws inspiration from, and rejects all the art that has come before. It is the topmost layer of a sedimentation of proposals, styles, ideas, images, forms, and vocabularies that have accrued over time. Contemporary art is a way of looking at the world and making sense of the questions, problems, joy, and chaos that exist all around us and trying to find an expression that gives form to, or makes sense of it all. It can sometimes take on urgent, global problems, but it can also be extremely intimate or deal with the language of art itself: abstraction, color, or shapes. It can be about the process and the inventiveness of coming up with new technologies and new materials. Contemporary art can often feel like an obscure, elusive, or almost hostile thing that people either shy away from or that lends itself to ridicule and derision."  by Christian Rattemeyuer, director Sculpture Center MOMAI thought this was very appropriate and truly describes contemporary art.  Even artists dont always understand contemporary art.  I have to work to understand a lot of video art and installations.  I am too impatient to sit for 10 minutes to watch a jumbled mass of images that do not make sense to me without a description from the artist but I am willing to be educated and I do try to understand that all art recreates the world of the artist as they see it. 

Telephone Game, Chinese Whispers, Russian Scandal and Grapevine, each variations of a game played in childhood, speak to that elemental need to communicate, despite our instinctive knowledge that the message is subject to language, interpretation, and intent, all along the road to enlightenment or— truthiness. The search can be noble or naughty, but endlessly fascinating, and it's as old as a pack of dogs.
The Circle of Truth is an ambitious art collaboration among 49 contemporary artists, working separately, but sequentially, under the guidance of co-curators Laura Hipke and Shane Guffogg, who created the first painting and delivered it, along with a blank canvas and request to create a visual response to the next artist in the Circle.
Previous paintings in the series went into storage as the process continued with the 49 artists over a period of nine years. Although each piece is accompanied by an essay from the participant, the optic impact of 20 by 20 square paintings hung straight in chronological order presents a visual trifecta. An individual work, by Robert Williams or Ed Ruscha, for example, tells one story; pieces in proximity reflect one another; and the whole visual experience is a multi-image panorama unified by the age-old question, "Just what is the story?"
After a debut at the New Museum Los Gatos, Circle of Truth opens at the Lancaster Museum of Art on August 10 and then at the Orange County Center for Contemporary Art on April 3rd, 2021.
Originally published in the Summer 2019 Issue of Juxtapoz Magazine.

The Venice Biennale is often referred to as the "Olympics" of the art world and there are many reasons this is true!  It is very expensive to exhibit at and NOT one penny is paid for by the Biennale.  Everything must come from the artist, the supporting foundation, and the artists benefactors.  Luckily I have a great group of collectors who really stepped up to the bat to help me raise the initial costs. 

I was approached in early 2018 about possibly doing an exhibition during the Biennale.  My first goal was a foundation and a curator to write the curatorial statement in a way that the Biennale committee would notice.  I asked an old friend who is an important curator and academic in NY to write the statement for the Biennale.  With a deadline approaching we went about putting ideas and thoughts on paper.  What was relevant in the way I paint to the theme of the 58th Biennale, "May You Live in Interesting Times"?  

We landed on the idea of Modern Apostles which eventually became "Influencers and Thought-provokers".  These are people that have great influence in our world and can start a war, destroy a company, or create a best selling author with a tweet!  

My curator had some issues that took president so I had to start looking once again to pick up where she had left off.  I was introduced to Priscialla Fraser who is the director of the MAK Center for Art & Architecture.  We clicked immediately and she agreed to write the statement and to process all the paperwork to get us accepted.  This was August of 2018.  

The application for the Biennale requires a curatorial statement, essays on me as the artist, the supporting foundation, the curator and tons of paperwork.  It has to be approved by the director, Ralph Rugoff and is then sent before both the selection committee and the board.  Its a lengthy process and we did not get the approval letter until December 26!!  We were now officially one of the 21 collateral exhibitions approved by the Biennale as part of the overall program. 

The Pollock Krasner Foundation agreed to support the exhibition and became my biggest financial contributor! Part of their support was also awarding me the Prize for Creativity, a special award given in honor of Lee Krasner.  I am only the 3rd artist to have received this.  What a huge honor!  BTW, the Pollock is the most amazing group of people you can ever hope to work with! 
 
More to come about logistics, press, costs, etc...  So much to tell!

Los Angeles based artist Todd Williamson will open his solo exhibition "Processional" at the 58th International Venice Biennale on May 11, 2019.
The Pollock Krasner Foundation, in partnership with the MAK Center for Art & Architecture and curated by Executive Director Priscilla Fraser, presents PROCESSIONAL @ the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Pieta on the Grand Canal near the Danielli Palace Hotel.  
Williamson collaborated with Professor Greg Walter from the UNC School of the Arts on a 3 movement work of original music specifically written for the Processional exhibtion.  
Williamson was also awarded the "Prize for Creativity" by the Pollock Krasner Foundation making him the 3rd artist to receive this particular award.

For Processional, Todd Williamson examines the ideas of order and tradition to insinuate the deep uncertainty and uncontrollable political, social, and cultural movements of our time. Both the work and concept generated for this installation will draw directly from the environment in which it will be displayed, Chiesa di Santa Maria Della Pieta, in Venice. Occupying the long, narrow chapel located to the side of the Church, the space invites a meditative, sequential process of reflection. Drawing from the formal proportions, material richness, and dramatic natural light of this special site, the artist has developed a series of works, which encourage contemplation, challenge the perceived order of tradition and ask who are our apostles today? What are their roles? Is the influence of today’s perceived Influencers truly inspirational or dangerously dogmatic?
 
William’s large scale canvases will sweep across the chapel’s walls of brick and crumbling plaster. The artworks will offer a new layer, a current materiality, to the deep patina of aging plaster and brick establishing a deeply rich, and continuous monochromatic palette. The colors of these new works are connected to what Williamson has termed, “the Modern Apostles and their antithesis”, that is, contemporary influencers and thought-leaders that have the remarkable power to cover, pervade, and completely overwhelm the existing environment. These rare individuals can then both initiate great ethical reform or fragment such ethics to the point of irreparable damage and erasure. While figures have interrupted the establishment through civil, social and technological innovations (Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs, Elon Musk); others have operated in a totally opposite direction, bringing fractures, distortions, erosion of pre-existing structures, but without any innovative or constructive intent of a new order. 
"PROCESSIONAL" will travel from the Venice Biennale to the MAC Museum in Singen Germany afterwards.  
#pollockkrasnerfoundation #makcenter #gregwalter #UNCSA #losangelesartist #venicebiennale #BiennalediVenezia #VeniceBiennale2019 

I received the official letter of congratulations from the Venice Biennale and its been a crazy ride!  The idea for the exhibition came up originally in the summer of 2018.  I asked Jennifer Chi, a well-respected curator and good friend to write the curatorial statement and began discussing how we could create an exhibition that was exciting and beautiful while also current and impactful.  Professor Greg Walter from the UNC School of the Arts is working with me to compose music that reflects the ideas behind the art and to create an auditory experience as you move through the exhibition.  
The MAK Center of Art & Architecture came on as my presenting sponsor and Priscialla Fraser will be the curator on record for the exhibition.  
We decided the exhibition would center around "Modern Apostles" or people that have enormous influence and power based on their intelligence, money, position, or celebrity.  T
he idea of how a "tweet" could create an international best seller or destroy a company.  How a person's wealth could be used to create good for the world or lead everyone to ruin. 
The idea is still developing as I paint and as the music is created.
I have 3 of 8 planned grand-scale paintings for the space while at the same time I am working to fund-raise and deal with my everyday art and its needs! 
I am working with an important NY art foundation (more details to come!) that will be my major sponsor for the event as I finalize the budget.  Its been an arduous journey to get a detailed budget and to plan for a 7-month long exhibition in another country! 
"PROCESSIONAL" will open May 8th and run through November 2019 @ the Pieta Church on the Grand Canal a few hundreds yards from the Grand Canal and the Arsenale.