William Villalongo (United States, b. 1975) discusses history, culture and art through his piece Muses (Artifact I) where he places African masks on 19th and 20th century European nudes recalling the appropriation of sacred, cultural objects by European painters. Villalongo is deeply concerned with how social and cultural histories are constantly cycling and being retold.
Read MoreART TALK: ARTIST WILLIAM VILLALONGO AND HIS OTHERWORLD
For the second time around AMMO Magazine caught up with Brooklyn native artist William Villalongo to discuss his current exhibit, “Mind, Body & Soul,” at Susan Inglett Gallery (NYC) as well as his participation in the “Greater New York!” group show at the MoMA PS1.
Read MoreAt MoMA PS1, David Hammons’s ‘African American Flag’ Beckons Visitors to ‘Greater New York’
MOMA PS1 HAS ASSEMBLED a sprawling exhibition featuring 157 New York artists and collectives that span generations and mediums, and includes more than 400 works, as well as performances and films.
Read MoreThe Figure Is Back, Baby! At MoMA PS1's Greater New York, Artists Vanquish Zombie Formalism With People Art
But, in the wake of the paranoid post-body speculations of the New Museum Triennial, the way the curators incorporate the figure across time and medium provides abundant food for thought. Here's a broad compilation of germane works from the show.
Read MoreA Magazine Scans the Connective Tissue Between Medicine and Art
William Villalongo‘s Anatomy of a Muse (2015), on the other hand, examines the historical, anatomical objectification of black women’s bodies [.]
Read MoreA New Orleans Gallery Show That's Transformed Guns into Art
"I wanted to challenge artists to use guns as raw materials for their art in a way that was not already part of their oeuvre or aesthetic," says Ferrara. "I wanted to challenge people who were painters or sculptors to take these foreign materials and incorporate them into their practice to make a statement about guns and gun violence."
Read MoreThe Shadows Took Shape
The jazz composer and visionary Sun Ra, who claimed to have come from Saturn, authored the poem whose opening line served as the title of this thought-provoking show, which explored the complex network of aesthetics and practices known as Afrofuturism. The show’s curators, Naima J. Keith and Zoé Whitley, define their subject as a “discourse …
Read MorePeggy Cooper Cafritz: Everything in a Big Way
Eye-popping, lovely and provocative, the place is now layered with so much new work, it provides a rich tutorial in contemporary and emerging (“Do we still say that?” wondered Ms. Cooper Cafritz) African-American art, a mash-up of the best of what you might find in a group show at the Studio Museum in Harlem, PS1 and the Jack Shainman Gallery in Chelsea, one of Ms. Cooper Cafritz’s longtime dealers.
Read MoreMuseum and Gallery Listings for Jan. 10-16
William Villalongo sets African sculpture and modernist painting soaring together among the stars [.]
Read MoreArtist William Villalongo collaborates with University of Tampa
To create good new art, an artist has to know a lot about old art. Then use that knowledge not to emulate but to extend. And, of course, have the technical chops to make the work. That's how I approach contemporary art.
If those criteria are applied, William Villalongo is on a strong trajectory.
Read MoreFeminist, horny pervert — or both? William Villalongo's depictions of women make for a heady mix at UT’s STUDIO-f.
His indeterminate position between the two poles makes Villalongo’s work difficult to turn away from. (Perhaps, like some of us, he is simply both a feminist and a horny pervert.) Aficionados of modern painting will recognize that he adopts a favorite subject of painters including Cézanne, Matisse and Picasso [...]
Read MoreIs That a Rectangle in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?
William Villalongo's Sista Ancesta exhibition at Susan Inglett manages to spark an inquiry that reaches all the way down to the vibration at the bottom of my purse, and answers the call right before it goes to voicemail. Although his stylistically confirmed approach to the black body is on full display, it is his experiments with video and digital collage that glisten with possibilities.
Read MorePossibly Being
Villalongo often masks violent elements in his work, like the bleeding, fist-sprouting Picasso-esque head in “His Eye Is on the Sparrow,” with a bright palette and easy-on-the-eyes materials. The visual pleasure offered to the viewer quickly turns into unrest, and vice versa. The flexibility of Villalongo’s practice shows an artist willing to try any number of possibilities, both new and deeply rooted in tradition, to represent an increasingly bizarre world.
Read MoreDesire
The difficulty in talking about “Desire,” the Blanton’s deliciously problematic assembly of international contemporary artists, without using “I” or “we” speaks to the show’s efficacy.
Read MoreArt Currents Flow Two Ways in Pan-American City, U.S.A.
[...] drawings by the Florida-born William Villalongo, a young artist who plays with Latino identity, taking it off, putting it on.
Read MoreThe Studio Museum's 'We Come With the Beautiful Things'; Dan Wynn at Farmani Gallery
William Villalongo's Swingin', a woodblock-like work of lines cut into black velour paper depicting a jungle fantasy, another of the artist's wry comments on 1970s "soul kitsch"
Read MoreAnother Country
This work can be described as a one-dimensional pictorialism in service to a multi-dimensional human story. It is reductive, tribally colorful, tightly semaphorical, integrated within the picture plane, both mournful and hopeful in theme. How remarkable that new exhibitions boldly reference and develop the work of these black masters: Mickalene Thomas at Lehmann Maupin and William Villalongo at Susan Inglett.
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