Open Air: Artist Talk with Brittney Leeanne Williams

An inspiring talk from an internationally renowned artist to discover her passions, inspirations, and creative process.

Join us for a motivating artist talk featuring Brittney Leeanne Williams to understand her creative process and admire her works. She is a featured artist in the Gantt's current exhibition, FuturePresent: Acquisition Highlights from the Permanent Collection.

In a recent exhibition entitled The Body Knows Its Door at The Hole NYC, Williams stated, “I often present space in my work to underline the tension between the psychological or spiritual and the external, physical world. By bringing the arch of the doorway to scale with the women's persistent bent back, the paintings reveal the interior world that each figure embodies, carries, and becomes."

How To Participate

This free virtual program will be streamed on the Gantt Center's official YouTube channel.

About Open Air

Open Air is a monthly series of virtual studio visits and intimate conversations with Black artists across the United States. Historically, African-American artists have been compelled to make their own way within the art world, challenging traditional ideas of cultural representation and creating their own systems of merit, criticality and reward outside of the mainstream. Join us as we get a behind-the-scenes look at exciting new art as it's being created, while connecting the makers' works to some of the most pressing issues of our times.

Brittney Leanne Williams is a Chicago-based artist, originally from Los Angeles. Her work has been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami (Untitled Art Fair), London, Venice, (Venice Biennale), Hong Kong, Paris, Antwerp, Copenhagen, as well as in Chicago and throughout the Midwest. Williams attended Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2008-09). She is a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant recipient. Williams' artist residencies include the Fores Project (UK), Arts + Public Life, and McColl Center for Art + Innovation, among others. Her work is included in various public collections, including the Columbus Museum (Columbus GA), the Domus Collection (NYC/Beijing), and Fundacion Medianoche0,(Granada ES).

Dexter Wimberly is an independent curator and entrepreneur who has organized exhibitions and developed programs with galleries and institutions throughout the world including The Third Line in Dubai; Contemporary Art Museum CAM Raleigh in North Carolina; The Museum of the African Diaspora (MoAD) in San Francisco; Koki Arts in Tokyo; and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City. His exhibitions have been reviewed and featured in publications including The New York Times, Artforum, and Hyperallergic; and have received support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Wimberly has also served as Director of Strategic Planning at Independent Curators International in New York City.

Prior to his curatorial career, Wimberly was the managing partner and CEO of the advertising agency, August Bishop, representing a diverse array of clients, including Adidas, The Coca-Cola Company and, HBO. Wimberly is a Senior Critic at New York Academy of Art. He is also the founder of ART WORLD CONFERENCE, a business and financial literacy conference for visual artists. He and ART WORLD CONFERENCE co-organizer, Heather Bhandari were recently listed in the Observer's "Arts Power 50: Changemakers Shaping the Art World in 2019.”