TODD WILLIAMSON
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Pollock Prize for Creativity

Venice Biennale / Those Crucifixes by Todd Williamson: reminiscences of the sacred memory between Naples and Italy

11/12/2019

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 by Antonio Conte
The Venice Biennale
  is one of the most important artistic events in our peninsula and no one can avoid making a pass at least once in their life also because contemporary art is ever more complete and embraces more fields of human knowledge, impossible don't get involved by the innumerable inputs that come to us like bullets that hit our senses, without exception.
On the page, the artist's works at the BiennaleA special feature of the artistic event  is its unraveling throughout the city with collateral events and national pavilions scattered around the districts of the Serenissima. Nothing could be easier then to get lost in the alleys of the city with the map of the Biennale in search of these events.
Along the banks of the Grand Canal after the splendid Piazza San Marco towards the Arsenal  and the Gardens, the main venues for the event are many of these widespread exhibitions. A particular building, the Church of Santa Maria della Pietà hosts an installation by Todd Williamson curated by Priscilla Fraser. We pass by the light of the sun that invades and pervades Riva degli Schiavoni in the narrow and long chapel of the church.
A feeling of peace, mysticism and the sacred take the visitor head-on, thanks also to the contrast with the external landscape. Venice is a crossroads of people and suddenly finding oneself immersed in a religious silence always has a certain effect, a diffused light and an unpublished nocturne by Greg Walter composed for the occasion do the rest.
Todd Williamson  cannot help but know that once he has caught our attention he puts us in front of large-format works. Abstract works with remarkable gestural power scattered around the chapel, even on the altar. Sentences of famous people accompany the works as engravings on black plates. words, tweets and posts extrapolated from their speeches, written in Latin as messages from prophets, letters and testimonies that take on an even more profound importance.
Accustomed to the light and to the well-known melancholy of the composition,  we realize that the works recall crucifixes, recalling sacred images of an Italian tradition that the artist knows well having exhibited several times in Italy and in particular in Naples with the gallery Art1307 in the center historical and to the CAM of Casoria. The artist's works can be found in the permanent collection of the Pio Monte della Misericordia.
These crucifixes  who only at first remember abstract works are more attentive and at peace with themselves than portraits of influential figures, spokesmen of our western culture raised by the artist to true sacred icons.
A criticism of a system which makes individuals like Donald Trump, Oprah and Kylie Jenner of the apostles of the contemporary. The installation, surely inspired by the place that hosts it, challenges the Italian classical tradition and, starting from it, undermines every stake and constraint by presenting us with the new sacred faces, today's influencers capable of understanding society or at least shaping it in their image and likeness .
A criticism that the artist puts in place by  asking himself first where we are going with no more points of reference, a procession that first accompanies the visitor, making him participate thanks to the phrases of the painted characters, creating a strange short circuit between what the eye perceives and that which reaches the mind through words, then transforms it into an accomplice character and active subject that contemplates, venerates and idolizes the person, the VIP, the influencer of the moment until the next new apostle that the consumer society will impose on us .
To learn more https://www.labiennale.org/it/arte/2019
#ToddWilliamson #contemporaryart #VeniceBiennale2019 #MAKcenter #GregWalter #UNCSA 

https://www.ilmondodisuk.com/biennale-veneziaquei-crocifissi-todd-williamson-reminiscenze-della-memoria-sacra-napoli-litalia/?fbclid=IwAR1UgFDreUn1kdFFUzhdft_1XN9QcpnRvNxUJJJsL8xqFzcxr7FL8Sxny34
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The Traveling "Circle of Truth" Exhibition Comes to the MOAH in LancasterLancaster Museum of Art History

9/25/2019

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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.
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Preparing for the Venice Biennale and the World Stage

7/29/2019

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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!


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Los Angeles artist Todd Williamson @ 58th Venice Biennale

4/4/2019

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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 

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Pollock Krasner "Prize for Creativity"

2/7/2019

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The POLLOCK KRASNER Foundation has awarded Todd Williamson the “Prize for Creativity” 2019 for work that “embodies high creative standards and exemplifies the impact of art on individuals and society.” 
The Foundation will also support Williamson’s project “Processional” in the Venice Biennale for 2019

#toddwilliamson #venicebiennale2019 #pollockkrasnerfoundation#makcenterforartandarchitecture #artecommunications #Processional #makcenter #contemporaryart
#wehoarts
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VENICE BIENNALE 2019

1/11/2019

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"PROCESSIONAL"  presented by the MAK Center of Art & Architecture
@ the Santa Maria della Pieta Chapel on the Grand Canal.

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. 
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Todd Williamson. Polyphony of a Landscape

12/1/2016

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www.amaliadilanno.com/todd-williamson-polifonia-di-un-paesaggio/POSTED BY AMALIA / ART , PAINTINGS   
​http://www.amaliadilanno.com/todd-williamson-polifonia-di-un-paesaggio/
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Williamson has written on canvas the visual representation of a sound melody. A painting that becomes music and music that you do painting. 
This exhibition contains works that were born from the collaboration between Williamson and American composer Greg Walter, but that collaboration we can talk about works in 4 hands in the sense that each group of notes composed of Walter has paid a brush Williamson imprinted on canvas and vice versa in every pictorial work has paid a note or a series of musical notes that have given life to a symphony. A completely new concept in the history of painting and in which we can say that the musician has "painted" the canvas and the painter has "played" the melody.
Williamson has written on canvas the visual representation of a sound melody. 
A painting that becomes music and music that you do painting. The theme of the works of Williamson remains a kind of abstract landscape made up of horizontal lines, light beams and shadows wise, but in this series of works there is something more: it is the vibration that irrepressibly by the same lines, the blurred edges of color, the color modulations and light that immediately refer to a musical score, to a "visible melody", a "sound" visual.
His works pose as real "frequencies" of sounds, "vibrations" of musical instruments, sheet music and grills. The work appears as the visual record of the waves formed by the sound of a musical instrument. The whole of this work in the exhibition is divided into three series that correspond to three "moments" music: "the frequency series", "the Grid series" and "the Light series," as Williamson, focused on particular "moments" such as musical harmonies, the string movement and musical tones.
.... "The movements of the musical melody (... .of Greg Walter), deep, rich, are balanced by the composition itself and the shades of color in the painting," which, I might add, it is so permeated with sound.
so we speak of "Polyphony" of a pictorial work that is of a variety of sounds that are displayed and made visible on a canvas through the wise calibration of tonal and compositional effects; the colors that are superimposed on the pictorial field, one at a mastery of light coming from the back and from the bottom, which, as Williamson, is more reminiscent of chiaroscuro that resulting from the movement lesson Californian Light and Space, are resolved in a wise interplay that match the color tone of the notes that follow each other in musical composition. The contours blurred and elusive, the light that pervades them from the back, the blows of scathing light invading the composition, give the image of a symphony in the act of creation.
The sense of alienation, the loss of awareness of the "here and now" that pervades the viewer in front of the vision becomes the means to "listen" to the work, to "feel" its music, its melody and completely surrender to it .
Opening hours November 24 18
Data sheet:
Art 1307 presents: 
Polyphony of a landscape - Todd Williamson pictorial personnel 
edited by Cynthia Penna
Opening Tuesday, November 24, 2015, at 18 - exhibition of paintings and concert world premiere of "I Must Dream" composed and directed by Greg Walter, performed with Manuela Albano (cello) and Janine Hawley (mezzo soprano).
Exhibition open from 24 November to 10 January 2016 (visit by appointment)
at Villa di Donato - S. Eframo Old, Naples
Info and Contacts: 
Cultural Institution Art1307 - Rampe Sant'Antonio a Posillipo 104, Naples 
info@art1307.com 
tel + 39/081 665 456 
Cell: +39/3356924214 
www.art1307.com
Communication and promotion manager, press contacts: 
Chiara Royal 
Mail. chiara.reale81@gmail.com 
tel. 0039/3805899435



Article 1307 Todd Williamson Chiara Royal Todd Williamson. Polyphony of a LandscapeCynthia Penna Villa di Donato amalia of The year

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"The ‘Ark’ is waiting"

10/18/2016

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http://www.arttoartpalettejournal.com/2016/10/the-ark-is-waiting/#comment-38422
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Our country is at the most precarious point in time and history. The decisions to be made will not only change our lives, but it will also affect the entire world. It is an urgent time and art has always been the best medium to convey the Message of the People. Like in the Russian Revolution, the Russian Avant-garde was born. The works of Kazimir Malevich, Aleksandra Ekster, Vladimir Tatlin, Wassily Kandinsky, David Burliuk and many more gave silenced a voice.     Victory Over the Sun was a theatrical work that incorporated the visual and the performing arts. It was their Reality TV.  Fortunately, I was able to see a reconstruction of this brilliant political and artistic performance shown at our own Bing Theater at LACMA.  It was so moving and powerful in a more tranquil time in our country.
However, today it would be more poignant. So that was then and now is a crisis now! I am so pleased that we have artists like Todd Williamson, who has conscientiousness, intellect and talent to awaken us from our sleep – there is a war going on people.
Let the dictates of society behold the messages that this artist delivers. Question yourselves about what you are doing to make a difference. Do you think nothing will change? Are you secure in your life and your world? Well, you better partake of what is going on in our country or you only have yourself to blame.
Look at Williamson’s message uncalculated on his canvases.  Go tohttp://www.artemerge.org –  The Disillusionment of Truth and read the words of the artist and click on the link to explore and reflect as you see each one of his works of art. May they be a beacon or a remembrance of a time in which we lived and too few responded.  It is like the Gandi and the Dali Lama are holding hands, praying that we bring harmony and peace to the world. Maybe you think your vote on one proposition or one candidate does not matter. Well, if we all have that attitude nothing matters. If we engage ourselves like Williamson everything matters.
He has left the questioning up to you. Enjoy the art and take action in however you see fit, Now is the time to activate and respond in kind.  Lets make a difference and continue the change from within. This starts in our own homes and moves to DC. The world will be a reflection of our inner strengths and morality. Yes, one poetic painting can say a lot and mean so much more.


By Chevalier Tony Clark
www.clarkfinearts.com
Share this:​http://www.arttoartpalettejournal.com/2016/10/the-ark-is-waiting/
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A Thief in Palm Springs Shows Appreciation for Todd Williamson’s ArtTue, Sep 27, 2016   By Staff   

10/6/2016

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http://www.wehoville.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Strong-Winds-Blow-installation-image-e1475027003922.jpg
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West Hollywood Arts Grants 

8/1/2016

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WeHo Arts (the City of West Hollywood Arts Division and Arts and Cultural Affairs Commission) is pleased to announce its 2017 Arts Grant Program. [http://www.weho.org/residents/arts-and-culture/opportunities]
 
First time applicants, as well as returning organizations with new development personnel, are strongly encouraged to attend the Annual WeHo Arts Grant Workshop, Wednesday, August 10, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. at the West Hollywood City Hall Community Meeting Room located at 8300 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood. Parking is available at the City Hall automated parking garage. RSVP to Weiwen Balter wbalter@weho.org to attend the workshop.
 
Grant opportunities include:
 
CITY ARTS PROJECT GRANTS – to support the production, performance, or presentation of art projects that serve the West Hollywood community. Non-profit organizations may apply for two years of grant funding with one application and with which the organization can apply for two projects, one for each project year. The maximum award any organization may receive under this grant is $8,500 per year. Application deadline: Friday, September 9, 2016 3PM PST.
  • 2017-18 City Arts Project Grant Eligibility Requirements [PDF]
  • 2017-18 City Arts Project Grant Application [Online Application]
CULTURAL RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT GRANTS – to support arts organizations with budgets under $75,000 and an interest in strengthening their organization’s infrastructure. The maximum award any organization may receive under this grant is $2,500 with an additional $1,500 in technical assistance. With its first successful application, the organization would be awarded a three-year contract (maximum grant of $7,500 and technical assistance of $4,500 payable over 3 years). Application deadline: Friday, September 9, 2016 3PM PST.
  • 2017-19 Cultural Resource Development Grant Eligibility Requirements [PDF]
  • 2017-19 Cultural Resource Development Grant [Online Application]
ONE CITY ONE PRIDE FESTIVAL GRANTS – to support programs, projects and events developed/produced by nonprofit organizations, individual artists and artist groups, to expand the celebration of June Pride Month through arts and cultural activities (visit www.weho.org/pride for more info). The 2017 theme is "Go West!" The maximum award is $7,000. Application deadline: Tuesday, September 6, 2016 5PM PST.
  • 2017 One City One Pride Grant Eligibility Requirements [PDF]
  • 2017 One City One Pride Grant Application [Online Application]
ARTS PARTICIPATION GRANTS – to support arts projects developed by education, social service, or community-based organizations in which art is not the primary mission of the organization or smaller arts projects developed by nonprofit arts organizations. An organization may receive only one grant per fiscal year (July 1 - June 30) of up to $1,000.  Arts Participation Grants may be applied for at any time during the fiscal year and will be awarded until funds are no longer available. Rolling deadline.
  • 2016-17 Arts Participation Grant Eligibility Requirements [PDF]
  • 2016-17 Arts Participation Grant Application [Online Application]
COMMUNITY ENRICHMENT GRANTS – to support a variety of community-based programs, projects and events developed/produced by nonprofit organizations where a modest grant can make a meaningful and sustainable difference in enriching the cultural life of the West Hollywood community. The maximum award any organization may receive under this grant is $1,000. Rolling deadline.
  • 2016-17 Community Enrichment Grant Eligibility Requirements [PDF]
  • 2016-17 Community Enrichment Grant [Online Application]
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