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Jamie Gray Williams

Born 1989
Evansville, IN

Working primarily in painting and drawing, Jamie Gray Williams utilizes fantasy and humor to explore questions about inter-subjective limits and the complex relationships of mind and body, imagination and reality, self and others.

Jamie Gray Williams, Shared Saliva, 2023, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 32 x 26 in

Her wild, expressive and often humorous oil and acrylic paintings possess a canny energy and fluidity, beginning life as intuitively conjured drawings.

Jamie Gray Williams, Pisseuse, 2022, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 74 3/4 x 55 in

Jamie Gray Williams, The Stream and the Spigot, 2022, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 78 x 58 in

Her work opens our eyes to a kind of physical theater, where our existence with and within the human body is exposed as an absurd and curious psychological experience. ⁠

Jamie Gray Williams, Light Passing Through Both Ends, 2023, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 32 x 26 in

Sophia Larigakis from Artforum writes: Citing classic slapstick, the figures in Jamie Gray Williams’s paintings and drawings loom in tragicomic disarray. Squirming, tripping, poking, tumbling––their bodies are both unmoored from any discernible surroundings and completely at the mercy of unseen obstacles. These genderless, guileless creatures, their noses squishy and upturned, limbs scribbled like markings on craft-store pen-tester pads, are loopily fatalistic.

Jamie Gray Williams, Pseudo Couple, 2023, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 60 x 50 in

...Williams’s paintings offer a less articulated––but no less nuanced––account of dynamism; her figures are often doubled, shown contemplating a perversion of their reflection, a slippage between selves.

Jamie Gray Williams, Identity Crisis, 2023, Acrylic and oil on canvas, 32 x 26 in

Jamie Gray Williams

Jamie Gray Williams (b. 1989, Evansville, IN; Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA) earned her MFA from Rutgers University in 2017 and a BA from the University of Southern Indiana. Williams was also a 2015 participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She has had several solo exhibitions including Marvin Gardens, Ridgewood, NY; PM/AM, London, UK; Demon Leg, New York, NY; Selenas Mountain, Ridgewood, NY; and Matinee Projects, New York, NY. Her work has also been featured in group exhibitions including The Pit, Glendale, CA; Tesoro, Barcelona, Spain; Nexx Asia, Taipei, Taiwan; Superzoom, Miami, FL; Pilot Projects, Philadelphia, PA; Venus over Manahttan, New York, NY; Dowling Walsh, Rockland, ME; and is in the collection of the University of Southern Indiana.
Jamie Gray Williams CV

Education

2017

MFA, Painting, Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University

2015

Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture


2011

BA, Studio Art, University of Southern Indiana

Solo Exhibitions

2023

JDJ | Tribeca, New York, NY (forthcoming)

2022

Fountain, Marvin Gardens, Ridgewood, NY
25, PM/AM, London, UK

2019

Fright Wig, Demon Leg Gallery, New York, NY


2018

Very Like a Whale, Selenas Mountain, Ridgewood, NY

2017

Lucky Old Sun, Matinee Projects, New York, NY

Selected Group Exhibitions

2023

The Bioelectric Self, The Pit, Glendale, CA
Firestarter, Tesoro with the Curators Room, Barcelona, Spain
Solidarity, Nexx Asia, Taipei, Taiwan

2022

To Bodily Go…, Superzoom, Miami, FL
Person(a), Venus over Manhattan, New York, NY
PLYOS, Dowling Walsh, Rockland, ME

2021

PICTURE-WRITING, Marvin Gardens, Ridgewood, NY

2020

Reality Used to Be a Friend of Mine, online exhibition, Selenas Mountain, Ridgewood, NY

2019

Way Off Somewhere, curated by Jonathan Dedecker, Marvin Gardens, Ridgewood, NY
Sample Sale, Demon Leg Gallery, New York, NY
Alley Oop, curated by Anna Queen, New System Exhibitions, Portland, ME
Same Sight Slighter, Pilot Projects, Philadelphia, PA


2018

Double Meeting, curated by Fjord Gallery, Orgy Park, Brooklyn, NY
Next, Nature (costumes and set for Hot Hands performance), FiveMyles, Brooklyn, NY

2017

Baker’s Dozen, Open Call Exhibition, Little Berlin, Philadelphia, PA
Leftovers: The Welcome Back Show, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Stranger Loops, curated by Lisa Long, Foley Gallery, New York, NY
Action at a Distance, Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Ocotillo, curated by Jonathan DeDecker, Stella Elkin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2016

Jamie Gray Williams and Ajay Leister, Day Space, Philadelphia, PA

2015

Inside/Outside: Works from the Skowhegan Archives, curated by Michelle Grabner, Common Street Arts, Waterville, ME

Press

2022

Takac, Balasz, “Superzoom Presents a Group Show Exploring the Human Condition,” Widewalls Magazine, November 30, 2022

2018

Larigakis, Sophia, “Jamie Gray Williams,” Artforum, December 2018