William Villalongo
b. 1975
https://www.askart.com/artist/William_Villalongo/11185503/William_Villalongo.aspx
William Villalongo (born December 14, 1975 in Hollywood, Florida) is an American artist working in painting, printmaking, sculpture, and installation. Villalongo is currently based in Brooklyn, New York.
Villalongo was born in Hollywood, Florida, to a Puerto Rican father and African-American mother. His parents separated when he was a young child and he was raised in Bridgeton, New Jersey with his older sisters.
Villalongo received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1999. He furthered his education by receiving his Masters in Fine Art from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 2001.
The works of Villalongo typically focus on the politics of historical erasure, particularly involving an artistic reassessment of Western, American, and African Art histories. The artist states that his intention toward these reassessments evolves in part from the West's histories of "taking African art objects and placing them on the side of the sofa to decorate, although that is not their purpose. We are obsessed with fitting a narrative, a story.
In 2016, Villalongo co-curated Black Pulp!, a traveling exhibition of nearly a century's worth of Black image production by Black publishers, Black artists and by non-Black artists, with fellow artist Mark Thomas Gibson.The exhibition was named for pulp, a cheap paper that was used to inexpensively print newspapers, books, leaflets, and other printed ephemera in the 19th and 20th centuries and consequently made mass communication possible.
During these centuries, the images of African-Americans that appeared in pulp publications produced and distributed by white Americans were racist. As a consequence, "black pulp" was used by black communities to combat these racist portrayals and to facilitate communication within and about black identity.
Black Pulp! presented black pulp media from the Harlem Renaissance and its succeeding decades that offered up "windows into the darker, erotic, satirical, and more absurd recesses of the Black popular imagination; while underscoring important debates around personhood and identity." The collection of works, wrote William Villalongo in the exhibition's catalogue, "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."
In a 2016 interview for The Huffington Post, Villalongo expressed his hope that the exhibition would allow people to "see an expanded view of the Black subject in general, but also the complex and immense challenge of historical efforts of Black folk to own and steward their own image."
Villalongo has exhibited throughout the United States with solo exhibitions at the University of Connecticut Contemporary Art Galleries; Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at University of the Arts Philadelphia; Scarfone-Hartley Gallery at the University of Tampa, Florida, and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture in Charlotte, North Carolina.
His work has additionally been featured in group exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem and El Museo de Barrio in New York City; the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina; the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland; and, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York City.
The artist has also completed residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Studio-f at the University of Tampa, Florida; the Hermitage Artist Retreat; and, the Fountainhead in Miami, Florida.
William Villalongo is an Assistant Professor at The Cooper Union School of Art.
Source:
Wikipedia, Mar. 2019
William Villalongo (born December 14, 1975 in Hollywood, Florida) is an American artist working in painting, printmaking, sculpture, and installation. Villalongo is currently based in Brooklyn, New York.
Villalongo was born in Hollywood, Florida, to a Puerto Rican father and African-American mother. His parents separated when he was a young child and he was raised in Bridgeton, New Jersey with his older sisters.
Villalongo received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1999. He furthered his education by receiving his Masters in Fine Art from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 2001.
The works of Villalongo typically focus on the politics of historical erasure, particularly involving an artistic reassessment of Western, American, and African Art histories. The artist states that his intention toward these reassessments evolves in part from the West's histories of "taking African art objects and placing them on the side of the sofa to decorate, although that is not their purpose. We are obsessed with fitting a narrative, a story.
In 2016, Villalongo co-curated Black Pulp!, a traveling exhibition of nearly a century's worth of Black image production by Black publishers, Black artists and by non-Black artists, with fellow artist Mark Thomas Gibson.The exhibition was named for pulp, a cheap paper that was used to inexpensively print newspapers, books, leaflets, and other printed ephemera in the 19th and 20th centuries and consequently made mass communication possible.
During these centuries, the images of African-Americans that appeared in pulp publications produced and distributed by white Americans were racist. As a consequence, "black pulp" was used by black communities to combat these racist portrayals and to facilitate communication within and about black identity.
Black Pulp! presented black pulp media from the Harlem Renaissance and its succeeding decades that offered up "windows into the darker, erotic, satirical, and more absurd recesses of the Black popular imagination; while underscoring important debates around personhood and identity." The collection of works, wrote William Villalongo in the exhibition's catalogue, "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."
In a 2016 interview for The Huffington Post, Villalongo expressed his hope that the exhibition would allow people to "see an expanded view of the Black subject in general, but also the complex and immense challenge of historical efforts of Black folk to own and steward their own image."
Villalongo has exhibited throughout the United States with solo exhibitions at the University of Connecticut Contemporary Art Galleries; Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at University of the Arts Philadelphia; Scarfone-Hartley Gallery at the University of Tampa, Florida, and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture in Charlotte, North Carolina.
His work has additionally been featured in group exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem and El Museo de Barrio in New York City; the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina; the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland; and, the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York City.
The artist has also completed residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York; Studio-f at the University of Tampa, Florida; the Hermitage Artist Retreat; and, the Fountainhead in Miami, Florida.
William Villalongo is an Assistant Professor at The Cooper Union School of Art.
Source:
Wikipedia, Mar. 2019
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