# In Conversation:Brittney Leeanne Williams and Justine Ludwig

URL: https://vielmetter.com/events/in-conversation-brittney-leeanne-williams-and-justine-ludwig/
November 7, 2026 | 2 - 3 pm · Viewing Room · Artists: Brittney Leeanne Williams

[**RSVP Here**](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-conversation-brittney-leeanne-williams-and-justine-ludwig-tickets-2003434397213?aff=oddtdtcreator) Vielmetter Los Angeles is excited to host a conversation between artist Brittney Leeanne Williams and writer and curator Justine Ludwig. The talk will take place on November 7th at 2pm on the occasion of William's spotlight presentation currently on view at the gallery. This group of works alludes to the body, to architecture, and to forms found in the natural world. Shapes reminiscent of eyes, blossoms, mountains, and curled bodies emerge from saturated red or blue gradients, their undulating surfaces rendered with pointillist precision. Williams’ practice explores the body, specifically the female Black body, as a site of transcendence and as a liminal space between the corporeal and the mystical. Her works draw from a range of art historical influences, including the work of transcendental artist Hilma af Klint and Laura Aguilar’s desert portraits. The body in Williams’ works is posited as a shapeshifter, sometimes materializing and dissolving into tiny points of color that gather along the contours of each form. In the artist’s own words: *The work in this show is from a current project that seeks to create images that act as talismans or icons. I think of these paintings as aspiring to the power that Simon Critchley ascribes to medieval Christian symbols: “Devotional objects and images impel the attentive viewer to both see the literal thing in front of them and to see beyond. To see both at once.” (Simon Critchley, Mysticism). I often use the eye as the center of these talismanic pieces, sometimes projecting out from a crouching form. The submissive yet entreating body becomes the source of vision, another shape shift of the red/Black female figure that recurs in my work. Another recurring motif in these talismans is the tulip, which acts as a structuring architecture for the image. I was originally drawn to the tulip because its dome-like structure evokes for me the bowed backs of an organized gathering and communing of women, a huddle. The red/Black figure is sometimes placed within this tulip-dome structure. The huddle encases, hugs and holds the curled form.* *Each piece is centered on a “pupil,” either a black point or an absence of paint. Layering the centered figure with its empty pupil within the tulip’s blossoming top creates a compositional focus, a kind of stage which invites a visitation or provides a space for something to happen that the eye might excitedly glimpse. These pieces explore the tensions between a siloed pursuit of faith and a communal, even monastic practice, represented by the ascending, mountain-like tulip heights that enclose the red / Black figure and open an oculus of light.* **Brittney Leeanne Williams**(b. 1990, Pasadena CA) Williams’ work explores the body as a site of transcendence, memorialization, suffering, and as a liminal device to the mystical. Her paintings often grapple with the articulation of the body as both subject and object, engaging ideas of presence and absence. The body, natural world, and architecture often blend and reflect each other in the work. Willliams uses the color red to speak to the Black experience, frequently centering a red Black body as the starting place for a painting.Williams’ work has been exhibited at Alexander Berggruen (NYC), The Hole (NYC/LA), Vielmetter (Los Angeles), Nicodim (Los Angeles), Anat Ebgi (Los Angeles), Lehmann Maupin (London), Carl Kostyál (Milan, Stockholm), Monique Meloche (Chicago), Mariane Ibrahim (Chicago), Para Site (Hong Kong), Galerie Droste (Paris), Newchild (Antwerp), Collaborations (Copenhagen); and at institutions such as MoAD (San Francisco) and Telfair Museums (Savannah GA), among others. Her work is included in various public collections, including the Columbus Museum (Columbus GA), the Domus Collection (NYC/Beijing), Fundacion Medianoche0 (Granada ES), HE Museum (China), The Museum of Fine Arts (Houston), and Museu Inimá de Paula, (Belo Horizonte, BR).She is a Joan Mitchell Foundation grant recipient. Williams’ artist residencies include the Hilma af Klint Ateljé, for which she was the inaugural resident; The Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans; Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture; the Fores Project (UK), Arts + Public Life (Chicago), and McColl Center (Charlotte, NC). Williams lives and works in Los Angeles. **Justine Ludwig** is a writer and curator who currently serves as the inaugural Creative Director of PST ART at the Getty. Previously, she served as the Executive Director of Creative Time, where she oversaw ambitious public art commissions and civic engagement initiatives. She has also held leadership and curatorial positions at Dallas Contemporary and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. She has worked with many artists including Charles Gaines, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Pia Camil, Pedro Reyes, Rashid Johnson, Laercio Redondo, Jill Magid, and Shilpa Gupta.