Lisa Williamson

Overview
painting of a curtain like object
Williamson, Bed Shade with Margins, 2012
Interested in language and its inevitable abstraction, Lisa Williamson leans into the formal considerations of sculpture to create works that are visually precise, physically resonant, and often attune to the spaces in which they are exhibited. The artist’s idiosyncratic practice follows a logic that is associative; compressing internal experience into forms that are both tangible and resistant at once. While there is a significant level of reduction and abstraction throughout the artist’s work, aspects of architecture, landscape and the figure remain visible throughout.
 
With a unique approach to scale and proportion, in which the artist uses her own body or the surrounding environment as a measuring device, there is a particular balance and formal terseness integral to each form. This is evident in her recent series, Body Boards, which conveys the body as both a physical and psychological space. Regarding precision as an expressive gesture and calibration as a mode of production, the artist’s distinct approach to color and meticulous attention to surface softens the line between painting and sculpture, landscape and portraiture, language and object. 
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Works
Biography
red and purple wall mounted sculpture
Williamson, Crosscut, 2018
Born in 1977, Lisa Williamson lives and works in Los Angeles, California. She graduated with a MFA from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles (2008) and received her BFA from Arizona State University, Tempe (1999). 
 
Williamson’s work has been included in important group exhibitions including the 2010 California Biennial, Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, CA (2010); Made in L.A., Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA (2012); Variations: Conversations In and Around Abstract Painting, Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art, CA (2014); PROSPECT 2017, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA (2017). In 2009 the artist completed a residency at CCA Andratx in Mallorca, Spain. Williamson was the recipient of the 2007 LA Studios, Inc. Sound Award as well as the University Teaching Fellowship at University of Southern California, Los Angeles. The artist also received the CAAP Grant in Chicago in 2001 and 2002. 
 
In 2019, a permanent installation, Obstruction, Reflection, Transition was installed at the University of Illinois, Springfield. 
 
Lisa Williamson’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art; and CCA Andratx, Mallorca. 
Download Artist's CV (PDF, opens in a new tab.)
Exhibitions