Rachel Eulena Williams, born in 1991 in Miami, Florida, is a Brooklyn-based American artist whose practice occupies the territory between painting and sculpture. Working with canvas, cotton rope, nylon thread, stockings, silkscreen, acrylic paint, and wood, she constructs assembled, object-like works that are simultaneously two- and three-dimensional, at once paintings and physical presences in space.
Her process is improvisational and material-driven: individual components are dyed, shaped, sewn, and attached to one another until the work holds its own form, coming together, as she describes it, like a web. Drawing on the lineage of artists including Betye Saar and Howardena Pindell, Williams situates her practice within the history of African American abstraction while pushing that tradition toward new formal and tactile territory. Her work is held in the permanent collections of the Pérez Art Museum Miami and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York.
KORNFELD Galerie Berlin presented Rachel Eulena Williams in a two-person exhibition at 68projects by KORNFELD, Berlin, in 2019, following her residency at the gallery's artist program.
Rachel Eulena Williams was born in 1991 in Miami, Florida, and lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She received her B.F.A. from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, in 2013. In 2018, she participated in the artist residency program at 68projects by KORNFELD in Berlin, and in 2019 she held a fellowship at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, New York.
Williams's practice sits at the intersection of painting, sculpture, assemblage, drawing, and printmaking. She works with unstretched and cut canvas, cotton and nylon rope, stockings, silkscreen, acrylic paint, and wood, building works in which individual components, dyed, shaped, and sewn together, accumulate into object-like constructions that assert a physical presence in space while retaining the visual logic of painting. Her palette moves between metallics and earth tones, and her compositions draw on the formal possibilities of the circle, the grid, and the web. The work is candid and playful in its handling of material, yet grounded in a serious engagement with art history, particularly the legacy of African American abstraction and the expanded field of painting as practiced by artists such as Betye Saar and Howardena Pindell.
Williams's work is held in the permanent collections of the Pérez Art Museum Miami and the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Solo exhibitions include presentations at Canada Gallery, New York (2020, 2024); Loyal Gallery, Stockholm (2019); Cooper Cole, Toronto (2018); Night Gallery, Los Angeles (2018); Ceysson & Bénétière, Sainte-Etienne (2018); Xavier Hufkens, Brussels; The Modern Institute, Glasgow; and Hair and Body at Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, Scotland (August 26 to November 19, 2023), her first major solo exhibition at a public institution in the United Kingdom, accompanied by a publication with texts by curator Jessica Taylor and DCA Director Beth Bate. Group exhibitions have taken her work to Pace Gallery, New York (2021); the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York; Hauser & Wirth; the Flag Art Foundation, New York; and numerous venues across the United States and Europe. Her work has been reviewed in Artforum, Hyperallergic, the Brooklyn Rail, and Wallpaper, and featured by Art Basel and Vice Magazine, among other publications.
Rachel Eulena Williams's relationship with KORNFELD Galerie Berlin is rooted in the artist residency program at 68projects by KORNFELD, the gallery's project space at Fasanenstrasse 68 in Berlin. In 2018, Williams came to Berlin as a resident, developing new work during her stay. This residency culminated in a two-person exhibition with Los Angeles-based painter Michael John Kelly at 68projects (June 27 to August 29, 2019), in which both artists presented work created during their time in Berlin, offering a direct reflection on the influence the city had on their respective practices. In 2024, Williams was included in Berlin on My Mind: Celebrating 10 Years of Artistic Residency at 68projects by KORNFELD, the milestone group exhibition bringing together all twenty-one artists who have participated in the residency program since its founding.
Rachel Eulena Williams's practice continues to expand its material and spatial ambitions, with each new body of work pushing further into the territory where painting, sculpture, and installation converge.
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Berlin on my Mind. Celebrating 10 Years of Artistic Residency at 68projects by KORNFELD – Groupshow
21 Jun - 24 Aug 2024 68projectsARTISTSRead more
Dawit Abebe, Olasunkanmi Akomolehin, Cristina BanBan, Yevgeniya Baras, William Bradley, Giorgio Celin, Chris Engman, Kimia Ferdowsi Kline, Seong Joon Hong, Chris Hood, Michael John Kelly, Alexander Kroll, Doron Langberg, Sandeep Mukherjee, Jennifer Packer, Adrianne Rubenstein, Kyungmi Shin, Levan Songulashvili, Panos Tsagaris, Rachel Eulena Williams & Liat Yossifor
INFORMATION
On 21 June, we will showcase 21 works by the 21 artists who have been our guests as artists-in-residence over the past 10 years of 68projects by KORNFELD – with ‘Berlin on My Mind’. We are celebrating our 10 years with 68projects by KORNFELD and the 10 years of our artist-in-residence program, but also our future, which we hope to keep creating in Berlin. In Berlin, international artists look for new perspectives, a place where ideas mingle
Opening: June 21 2024, 6 pm
Exhibition: June 21 – August 24 2024, Tue – Sat, 11 am – 6 pm
68projects by KORNFELD, Fasanenstr. 68, 10719 Berlin -
Michael John Kelly & Rachel Eulena Williams
27 Jun - 29 Aug 2019 68projects68projects is pleased to present a duo presentation featuring Los Angeles artist Michael John Kelly and New York artist Rachel Eulena Williams. Kelly's large-scale paintings and drawings as well as William's object-like works were all created during their stay in Berlin as part of our residency program. The exhibition provides an insight into the artists' practices and a unique reflection on the influences their stay in Berlin had on their work.Read more
