PROCESSIONAL:

Todd Williamson at Biennale di Venezia

Chiesa di S. Maria della Pietà – Riva degli Schiavoni – Venezia
11 May – 24 November 2019
Organization: La Biennale di Venezia
Collaboration: ART 1307 Cultural Institution
Curator: PRISCILLA FRASER
Communication: ARTE COMMUNICATIONS – Carlotta Scarpa – Tel: +39.041.5264546 – Email: info@artecommunications.com
Special thanks: The Pollock Krasner Foundation – MAK Center for ART & ARCHITECTURE

PRESS RELEASE

The MAK Center for Art and Architecture is pleased to announce our participation in the Collateral Events of the 58th La Biennale di
Venezia. Todd Williamson’s site-specific installation, for which The Pollock-Krasner Foundation has awarded him the Pollock Prize for
Creativity, illustrates ideas of order and tradition to examine the deep uncertainty and uncontrollable political, social, and cultural movements
of our time.
Both the work and concept generated for this installation will draw directly from the environment in which it will be displayed, Chiesa di
Santa Maria Della Pietà, in Venice. Occupying the long, narrow chapel located to the side of the church, the space invites a meditative,
sequential process of reflection. Drawing from the site’s formal proportions and material richness, the artist has developed a series of works
which encourage contemplation, challenge the perceived order of tradition and ask who are our apostles today? What are their roles? Is the
influence of today’s perceived Influencers truly inspirational or dangerously dogmatic?
Curated by the MAK Center for Art and Architecture’s Director, Priscilla Fraser, and displayed inside a vaulted passageway, original works
of writing will provide moments of pause for deeper contemplation. Through this strategic installation, Williamson encourages a suggested
comparison between what we see and what we read. This designed dialogue invites the viewer to reflect upon the connection between reality
and perception, between person and personality.
To further stimulate the visitor’s experience, Williamson is collaborating with composer and professor Greg Walter from the University of
North Carolina, School of the Arts, to develop a harmonic Nocturne specific to the installation.
About Todd Williamson
For the past 20 years Todd Williamson has exhibited extensively. Williamson has exhibited extensively both in the United States and
internationally. His work is part of the Pio Monte della Misericordia permanent collection and is collected in some of the top collections around
the world. He has shown at the CAM Museum, New Jersey Visual Arts Center, ART1307 Cultural Institution Napoli, Italy, the Sonjuang third Biennale Beijing and over eighty exhibitions
around the world. He has exhibited alongside Ed Ruscha, Jenny Holzer, Ed Moses, Chuck Close, and Robert Ryman. Williamson has been
awarded Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant 2011, Artistic Merit Award Art 1307, Best Foreign Artist Bluduemila Sport and Art Foundation,
2 Artslant Abstract Showcase Awards.
About La Biennale di Venezia
La Biennale di Venezia was founded in 1895 and is now one of the most famous and prestigious cultural organizations in the world. La
Biennale, who stands at the forefront of research and promotion of new contemporary art trends, organizes exhibitions and research in all its
specific departments: Arts (1895), Architecture (1980), Cinema (1932), Dance (1999), Music (1930), and Theatre (1934).
About the MAK Center for Art and Architecture
Offering a year-round schedule of exhibitions and events, the MAK Center presents programming that challenges conventional notions of
architectural space and relationships between the creative arts. It is headquartered in the landmark Schindler House (R.M. Schindler, 1922) in
West Hollywood; operates a residency program and exhibition space at the Mackey Apartments (R.M. Schindler, 1939) and runs more intimate
programming at the Fitzpatrick-Leland House (R.M. Schindler, 1936) in Los Angeles. The MAK Center is the California satellite of the MAK
– Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art in Vienna, and works in cooperation with the Friends of the Schindler House.

WORKS ON SHOW

PICTURES OF THE EVENT

VIDEO

Processional di Greg Walter

Additional informations

Texts of Critics

Press Room

Patronage and Sponsor