December 10th, 2020

60 Lispenard Street

P: 212 925 4631

New York, NY

Tracing Memory

RACHEL

EULENA

WILLIAMS

RW2020-023-ATedit-OVR-d1

Detail of Rachel Eulena Williams' 'Orange Blood', 2020

Canada is proud to present Tracing Memory by Rachel Eulena Williams, the artist’s debut show at the gallery. Striking a balance between painting and sculpture, Williams revels in the structure and propositional space of painting but finds freedom in tossing out the stretchers and letting her compositions roam freely across the walls. These works brim with the joy of an artist finding thought and pleasure through making. The staple ingredients include rope, fabrics, hammocks, glue, and paint. Williams often starts by painting loose fields of color on raw canvas that she subsequently cuts up and refashions to create her collaged pieces. The ingenuity and rawness of the process yields results that feel smooth and fluid. Williams brings undeniable artisanal skill to her works, and the exuberant color and expressive lines are life-affirming and come not one minute too soon. 

2019-057_0140

Williams in studio, Fall 2019 (Photo Credit: Nicholas Calcott)

Williams uses shapes that are loosely modular, circles, and irregular rectangles that imply maps or schematic drawings for extremely funky space stations. And while the paintings never refer directly to anything in particular William’s abstractions do evoke construction sites, clotheslines, or well-loved quilts. The tondos also feel totemistic, like shields or ornaments. The objects exude solidity and groundedness; their drips and flows of paint rarely conform to the laws of gravity. Williams’ collage techniques subvert the inherent weight of the paintings: knots and makeshift tassels are wrapped or draped around the tondo’s edge; folded or slit fabric reveals a hidden blue or smoldering orange.

It seems possible to say the content of the work is color, which she uses in daring and expressive ways. Williams chooses bold hues that she employs to create wild contrasts and subtle gradients. The complexity of her choices feels transgressive and potent. In a recent interview, Williams pointed out that the story of Black abstraction, including such artists as Al Loving, Howardena Pindell, or Alma Thomas, is the story of color. Color unbound and taking flight, is a reaction to the whiteness typical of gallery walls and grounds of most paintings, countering whiteness in both a literal and metaphorical sense. Tracing Memory places her as a clear heir to that tradition and reminds us that placing one color against another is a choice and her choices here create power. The power of color and Williams’ nearly bodily inhabitation of materiality allow traces of memory to flow through these pieces, both as standalone artworks and as collective memory of labor and longing. 

Rachel Williams (b. 1991, Miami, FL) received her BFA from The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York. Her work has been exhibited at venues such as Cooper Cole, Toronto; Ceysson & Benetiere, New York, Saint Etienne & Luxembourg; The Brooklyn Academy of Music, The Journal Gallery, and Turn Gallery, all in New York; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; and Loyal Gallery, Sweden. In 2019 she held the SIP Fellowship at the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York.

Part 1

IMG_5896-scaled-ATedit

Rachel Eulena Williams
Orange Blood, 2020
Acrylic paint and dye on canvas, panel, and cotton rope
60 × 98 × 3 inches (152.40 × 248.92 × 7.62 cm)

Rachel Eulena Williams
Red Grey Clay, 2020
Silkscreen on card, dye and acrylic paint on hammock, canvas and cotton rope
72 × 62 × 3 inches (182.88 × 157.48 × 7.62 cm)

IMG_1025
IMG_3813-2
IMG_5746

Rachel Eulena Williams
Silent Moss, 2020
Silkscreen on card, dye and acrylic paint on panel, canvas and cotton rope
38 × 40 × 3 inches (96.52 × 101.60 × 7.62 cm)

Rachel Eulena Williams
Earth Fresco, 2020
Silkscreen, dye and acrylic paint on panel, canvas, and cotton rope
54 × 49 × 3 inches (137.16 × 124.46 × 7.62 cm)

IMG_1779-1
IMG_5297
IMG_2260

Rachel Eulena Williams
Moon Marked, 2020
Silkscreen on card, dye and acrylic paint on panel, canvas and cotton rope
43 × 38 × 3 inches (109.22 × 96.52 × 7.62 cm)

Rachel Eulena Williams
Tracing Memory, 2019
Acrylic paint on panel, canvas and cotton rope
48 × 29 × 3 inches (121.92 × 73.66 × 7.62 cm)

Part 2

DSC_0320-1

Rachel Eulena Williams
Don't Have to Touch Me to Feel Me, 2020
Silkscreen, acrylic paint, and dye on canvas, panel, and cotton rope
67 × 143 × 3 inches (170.18 × 363.22 × 7.62 cm)

Rachel Eulena Williams
Over the Eyes, 2020
Silkscreen, dye and acrylic paint on panel, canvas, cotton rope and hammock
61 × 49 × 3 inches (154.94 × 124.46 × 7.62 cm)

IMG_6485
IMG_6488
IMG_6486

Rachel Eulena Williams
Doubled Purple, 2020
Dye and acrylic paint on panel and canvas, cotton rope
59 × 49 × 3 inches (149.86 × 124.46 × 7.62 cm)

Rachel Eulena Williams
Cutting Stone, 2020
Silkscreen on card, dye and acrylic paint on panel, canvas and cotton rope
49 × 52 × 3 inches (124.46 × 132.08 × 7.62 cm)

Rachel Eulena Williams
The Orange Beneath the Moon, 2019
Dye and acrylic paint on panel, canvas and cotton rope
54 × 30 × 3 inches (137.16 × 76.20 × 7.62 cm)

Rachel Eulena Williams
Sing Sin, 2020
Silkscreen, dye and acrylic paint on panel, canvas, and cotton rope
43 × 39 × 3 inches (109.22 × 99.06 × 7.62 cm)

Installation Views

Canada Online Viewing Room

Join our mailing list

Stay up to date on the latest news about Canada artists, exhibitions, events, and more...

© Canada 2020

Design by Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle

Selected Works

Dream SpeakRachel Eulena Williams

ZzyzxChristina Sucgang

HomesickSadie Laska

Promised LightLuke Murphy

ReadersKiyoshi Tsuchiya

ComeCloseJoan Snyder

NocturnesAnke Weyer

Arms and the SeaKatherine Bradford

Objet OuttaKen Resseger

Last LandscapesGerald Ferguson

Leroy's LuncheonAzikiwe Mohammed

Frisson CityLee Relvas

Reassembler 3Brian Belott

A Ball is for ThrowingElizabeth McIntosh

Ambient MusicLee Mary Manning

TORSOAnnabeth Marks

BiscuitLyric Shen

Body ForthMatt Connors

A Cliff to ClimbRyan Preciado

Library of a DreamRobert Janitz

Gold GoldRJ Messineo

On ValentinesSpencer Lewis

Who is afraid of Natasha?Joanna Malinowska & CT Jasper

USMichael Mahalchick

TRANSFIGURATIONAurora Pellizzi

The Thick StreamGroup Exhibition

5 SeasonsJason Fox

Mother PaintingsKatherine Bradford

Ceramics and PrintsElisabeth Kley

Black Femme: Sovereign of WAP and the Virtual Realm curated by Christiana Ine-Kimba Boyle

#VayaConDiosKatherine Bernhardt

DrawingsJason Fox

Heart, HeartAnke Weyer

Tracing MemoryRachel Eulena Williams

Rayos De SombraRobert Janitz

GorpTyson Reeder

EREHWONSadie Laska