William Villalongo

William Villalongo (born 1975) is an American artist working in painting, printmaking, sculpture, and installation art.[1] Based in Brooklyn, New York, Villalongo is an assistant professor at the Cooper Union School of Art in New York.[2]

William Villalongo
BornDecember 14, 1975
Hollywood, Florida, U.S.
EducationThe Cooper Union, Tyler School of Art
Known forPainting, printmaking, sculpture, and installation art

Early life and education

Villalongo was born in Hollywood, Florida, to a Puerto Rican father and African-American mother.[3] His parents separated when he was a young child and he was raised in Bridgeton, New Jersey.[3] Villalongo received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in 1999.[4] He furthered his education by receiving his Masters of Fine Art from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in 2001.[5]

Influences

Villallongo’s work typically focuses on the politics of historical erasure, with a particular focus on the artistic reassessment of Western, American, and African Art histories.[1][6] 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."[3]

His work engages with the black body, examining the influence of socialization, history, dress and speech. Commenting on his reexamination of the power dynamics of history and representation, Villalongo has posited, "[The relationship is] problematic and interesting, and I wanted to think about how to use it and tell a story."[7] In many of the artist's portraits, bodies emerge from "a tumult of white negative space cut out of black velour paper," in ways that evoke leaves, branches, feathers, or slashes.[8][9]

Professional career

Villalongo has exhibited throughout the United States. His solo exhibitions include the University of Connecticut Contemporary Art Galleries;[1][10] Rosenwald-Wolf Gallery at University of the Arts Philadelphia; Scarfone-Hartley Gallery at the University of Tampa, Florida,[7] and the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture in Charlotte, North Carolina.[11]

His work was included in a major gift to the permanent collection of the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2018 by collector Peggy Cooper Cafritz.[12] Villalongo is one of 42 artists who contributed works to a record-setting Sotheby's auction in support of the construction of a new building for the Studio Museum, to be located on 125th Street.[13][14] His work has been featured in group exhibitions at El Museo del Barrio in New York City;[15] the Weatherspoon Art Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina;[16][17] the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland;[18] and, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York City.[19] The artist’s work can be found in collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art; Denver Art Museum; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; Princeton University Art Museum; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University; Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC; Toledo Museum of Art; Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Greensboro; Whitney Museum of American Art; and the Yale University Art Gallery among others.[4] He has also had work published in ESOPUS 22.[20][21]

Villalongo has completed residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York;[22] Studio-f at the University of Tampa, Florida; the Hermitage Artist Retreat; and, the Fountainhead in Miami, Florida.[23]

He is represented by Susan Inglett Gallery, New York.[4][24]

Curatorial work: Black Pulp!

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.[25] 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.[26] During these centuries, the images of African-Americans that appeared in pulp publications produced and distributed by white Americans were often racist.[26] As a consequence, "black pulp" was used by black communities to combat these racist portrayals and to facilitate communication within and about black identity.[26]

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."[25] 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."[26] 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."[27] A large portion of the historical works and print media displayed in the exhibition came from collections at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the Library of Congress, the Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University, EBay, and the personal collections of Villalongo and Gibson.[27]

Black Pulp! garnered critical attention, particularly because of its focus and attention to black experience and identity.[28][29][30]

Awards
  • 2005, Louis Comfort Tiffany Award[22][31]
  • 2006, Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptor's Grant[22]

References
  1. Jenne, Ginger (September 5, 2017). "'Outside My Name or Through Other Eyes' Reinterprets the Harlem Renaissance and American Modernism". UCONN Today. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  2. "William Villalongo | The Cooper Union". cooper.edu. Retrieved 2019-07-29.
  3. Rodés, Andrea (February 22, 2018). ""Being Afro-Latino is being between two places"". AL DÍA News. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  4. "Susan Inglett Gallery | William Villalongo". www.inglettgallery.com. Retrieved 2019-02-12.
  5. "Yale University School of Art: William Villalongo". art.yale.edu. Retrieved 2016-02-13.
  6. "William Villalongo". The Cooper Union. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  7. Bennett, Lennie (March 23, 2013). "Artist William Villalongo collaborates with University of Tampa". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  8. Rodney, Seph (November 29, 2017). "Making Out the Black Body in Swirling Images When looking at the pieces in William Villalongo's Keep On Pushing exhibition, the question I'm faced with is: How do these bodies cohere?". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  9. Novick, Ilana (March 1, 2019). "A First-Timer Approaches the ADAA Fair Like a Buffet". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  10. Valentine, Victoria L. (September 30, 2017). "New Season, New Art: Fall Begins with 45 Notable Exhibitions Featuring Works by Black Artists". Culture Type. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  11. "New Mythologies: William Villalongo October 26, 2013 - January 20, 2014". The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  12. Valentine, Victoria L. (October 10, 2018). "Historic Bequest: Late Arts Patron Peggy Cooper Cafritz Gifted 650+ Works of Art to the Studio Museum in Harlem and Duke Ellington School of the Arts". Culture Type. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  13. Halio, Grace (May 3, 2018). "42 Artists Donate Works to Sotheby's Auction Benefitting the Studio Museum in Harlem". ArtNews. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  14. Valentine, Victoria (May 22, 2018). "Studio Museum in Harlem Sale Raises $20.2 Million at Sotheby's, Yields 24 Artist Records". Culture Type. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  15. Cotter, Holland (October 15, 2009). "Art Currents Flow Two Ways in Pan-American City, U.S.A." The New York Times. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  16. "Art on Paper 2012: The 42nd Exhibition". Weatherspoon Art Museum. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  17. "Stocks & Bonds". Weatherspoon Art Museum. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  18. "Inside Out and From the Ground Up". MOCACleveland. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  19. "The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Welcomes Visitors to its Open Studios, October 19–21". Hypoallergenic. October 16, 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  20. "Artist's Project: William Villalongo". ESOPUS 22 (Spring 2015). Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  21. Lippy, Tod. "Esopus 22". Artbook. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  22. "William Villalongo". The Mission. Retrieved 5 April 2019.
  23. "William Villalongo". The Fountainhead. Retrieved 2018-07-25.
  24. "William Villalongo's Solo Exhibition Opens in Chelsea Gallery". The Cooper Union News. November 1, 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
  25. "Curatorial: 2016 - Black Pulp". William Villalongo. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
  26. Bell, Cei (February 28, 2018). "A history of increased African-American visibility, self-determination in 'Black Pulp!'". WHYY. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  27. Freeling, Isa (2016-11-02). "BLACK PULP! A WALK THROUGH AN AFRICAN AMERICAN TIME CAPSULE AT IPCNY". Huffington Post. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  28. Steadman, Ryan (January 18, 2016). "Can You Fight Racism With a Paintbrush? This Show Says 'Yes'". Observer. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  29. Sargent, Antwaun (2016-10-28). "A Century of Pulp Fiction Offers a Window into Black Identity". Creators. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  30. Rodney, Seph (November 8, 2016). "Black Identity Seen Through the Lens of Pulp Stories". Hyperallergic. Retrieved 2019-02-20.
  31. "William Villalongo". Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation. Retrieved 6 April 2019.
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