William Villalongo (born 1975 in Hollywood, Florida) is an American artist working in painting, printmaking, sculpture, and installation. Villalongo is currently based in Brooklyn, NY.
Early life and education
William Villalongo received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from The Cooper Union School of Art and Science in 1999. He furthered his education by receiving his Masters in Fine Art from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University. Villalongo has also completed residencies at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in ME, The Studio Museum in Harlem New York, and Studio-f at the University of Tampa, Florida.
Career and work
William Villalongo has exhibited nationally, most recently in solo exhibitions at Scarfone-Hartley Gallery at the University of Tampa, FL, the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture in Charlotte, North Carolina, and an upcoming exhibition at the Montclair Contemporary Art Museum in 2016. Villalongo has also participated in group shows at institutions nationally: the Studio Museum in Harlem and El Museo de Barrio in New York City; Weatherspoon Museum of Art in Greensboro, North Carolina; and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland, Ohio to name a few. Reviews of his work have appeared in Artforum, The New York Times and Huffington Post among others. Villalongo is represented by Susan Inglett Gallery in New York City.
Villalongo was a recipient of the Louis Comfort Tiffany Award in 2005, The Joan Mitchell Foundation Award in 2006, and NYFA Artist's Fellowship in 2012.
Amanda Church writing for Art in America describes Villalongo's recent work as "quasi-naturalistic playgrounds of decadence and depravity, combining so many references and symbols from so many genres and sources that it would be difficult to inventory them all." Historically Villalongo has made it his practice to layer elements of "art history, western history, personal history, current events, and popular culture" to suggest the contemporary experience. Villalongo talks more about the women in his images in an interview with Ammo Magazine. "This new work chronicles a community of women surviving in romantic & idealistic landscapes. In a lot of ways it is an overview of their customs; work play, ritual, procreations etc. Within this survivalist narrative is a layering of art history, western history, personal history, current events, and popular culture.”
2016 The Montclair Art Museum, Montclair NJ
2015 "Mind, Body, and Soul", Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC
2013 "New Mythologies", The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture, Charlotte NC
2013 "Fierce", Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT
2013 Scarfone Hartley Gallery at University of Tampa, Tampa FL
2012 "Sista Ancesta", Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC
2010 "Bathing Nymph", Susan Inglett Gallery
2009 "Eden's Remix"Susan Inglett Gallery, NYC
2007 "How the West Was Won", Franklin Art Works, Minneapolis, MN
2015 "Greater New York," MoMA PS1, Queens, NY
2015 "Affinity Atlas", Tang Museum, Saratoga Springs, New York (upcoming)
2015 "Disguise: Masks and Global African Art”, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY (upcoming)
2015 "The Image of the Artists in their Absence: The Self Portrait”, National Academy Museum & School, NYC
2014 "On Paper: Alternate Realities”, The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD
2014 "Guns in the Hands of Artists", Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans, LA; Aspen Institute, NYC
2014 "If You Build it, They Will Come", No Longer Empty, NYC
2013"The Shadows Took Shape", The Studio Museum Harlem, NYC
2013"On the Relativity of Distance. (and some of its consequences): American and Italian Art, 1963–2013", curated by Filippo Fossati and Maurizio Pellegrin, National Academy Museum, NYC
2013"The Fourth Dimension" curated by Saya Woolfalk including Trenton Doyle Hancock and Chitra Ganesh, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2013"The Emo Show", The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NYC
2013"Hypertrophic Visions", Curated by Robin Reisenfeld, NYCAMS, NYC
2013"Voces y Visiones: Highlights from the Collection of El Museo del Barrio, New York,” Nevada Museum of Art, Reno, NV
2012 “Art on Paper”, Weatherspoon Art Museum, Greensboro, NC
2012 “Inside Out and from the Ground Up”, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, OH
2012 “...Game On”, Peveto, Houston, TX
2011 “The Bearden Project”, Studio Museum in Harlem, NY
2011 “Summertime in Paris”, Parisian Laundry, Montreal, Canada
2011 “Collected. Vignettes”, Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC
2010 “Next Wave Art”, Curated by Dan Cameron, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn, NY
2010 “Desire”, Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
2009 “Liberty & The Land”, Cuchifritos, NYC
2009 “The Kitchen Block Party”, NYC
2009 “Permanent Collection”, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ
2009 “Back to the Garden”, Deutsche Bank, NYC
2009 “Sixty Minutes”, Contemporary Art Museum, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL.
2008 “The Future Must be Sweet: Lower East Side Printshop Celebrates 40 Years”, NYC
2008 “The Future As Disruption”, The Kitchen, NYC
2007 “Welcome to My World”, Alexandre Pollazzon Gallery, London, England
2007 “MASK”, James Cohan Gallery, NYC
2007 “The S Files”, El Museo del Barrio, NYC
2007 “Sirens Song”, Arthouse, Austin, TX
2006 “Interplay”, Exit Art, NYC
2006 “Possibly Being”, Esso Gallery, NYC
2005 “Frequency”, Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC
2005 “You Are Here”, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX
2005 “Hanging by a Thread”, The Moore Space, Miami, FL
2005 “Delicate Demons and Heavenly Delights”, Oliver Kamm, NYC
2005 “Pulp!”, Karyn Lovegrove Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2005 “Collection In Context”, Studio Museum In Harlem, NY
2005 “Greater New York 2005”, MoMA P.S.1, Long Island City, NY
2004 “Figuratively: A.I.R. Exhibition”, Studio Museum in Harlem, NYC
2004 “Open House”, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Brooklyn, NY
2003 “Group Show: All Together Now”, Rush Arts, NYC
2003 “Online”, Feigen Contemporary, NYC
