Rachel Williamson

My work deals with the metaphor of painting as imaginative play. I remember as a child that play was as a re-enactment and re-interpretation of the interesting aspects of the world around me, which often consisted of children’s media. The play I indulge in as an adult often contains motifs of family dysfunction, sparsely populated landscape, and 18th-19th century European painting. Many of my works are made on unstretched canvas or paper with an air of nonchalance. Continuing the metaphor of painting as play, the viewer is considered a voyeur. Although included in some pieces (such as “Garage Sink Rug,” in which the viewer is invited to treat the unstretched painting as a functional mat), the viewer performs as a witness to the imaginative game. I enjoy leaving the line between abstraction and figure ambiguous -- the piece might suggest humor or discomfort, but the viewer is not given any hint other than the invitation to wonder.

Rachel Williamson is a visual artist with a background in painting from San Diego, California. She is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she is branching out from painting by experimenting with sculptural mediums including plaster and fiber, combining two-dimensionality and three-dimensionality. Her work explores themes of metamodernism surrounding the human experience and relation to one’s self, society, other individuals, and space.

2018 ArtBash 2018, LeRoy Neiman Center School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL, USA

2018 Past Present, Present Past, Roger Brown Study Collection, Chicago, IL, USA

2018 Traditional to Contemporary: A Figure and Portrait Exhibition, Oak Park Art League, Chicago, IL, USA

2017 3rd Time’s the Charm, Ashton Gallery, San Diego, CA, USA

2016 REGRESS: Sankofa, ArtVale Gallery, Oakland, CA, USA

2014 Arts and Crafts Center Gallery Showcase 2014, Hickam Arts and Crafts Center, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Honolulu, HI, USA