Lorna Williams was born in 1986 in New Orleans, Louisiana. She received her BFA from Maryland Institute College of Art in 2010. She studied at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, School of Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia. In 2009, she attended the Norfolk Program at Yale University. Her work has been exhibited at the Studio Museum Harlem, Harlem, NY; Montserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA; and University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA. Williams’ work has been reviewed in The Wall Street Journal, Art in America, The New York Times, FLATT, Boston Magazine, Concierge Magazine, and The Boston Globe, among others. She was the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions including Presidential Scholars Program Semifinalist, ARTS Recognition Finalist, National Foundation for the Advancement in the Arts Finalist, Art and Change Grantee of the Leeway Foundation, Ellen Battell Stockel Fellowship Recipient. Her work is included in the collection of 21C Museum, The Pizzuti Collection and Wellington Management. Williams lives and works in New Orleans, LA.
Statement:
"As the primary site of expression, the body is the tool and subject of my work. I closely analyze and deconstruct human anatomy to speak to the reality that human-made materials mimic nature. These processes organically unfold through external support systems, timing, cause and effect. My works are intricately constructed with detritus from my life, including various hardware, bike parts, music instruments, ropes and chains. I also use natural materials such as raw wood, root systems, bird’s nest, insect hives, animal corpses, hair and snake shedding- of which has been collected over the course of travels, living, and circumstance. These materials unify the concept of what is created artificially and what manifests organically through natural processes.
My anthropomorphic sculptures are meticulous amalgams of unlikely and often provocative material juxtapositions. I am fascinated by the functions that all materials, whether human-made or natural, are subject to performing and am always searching for the possible relationships among them—always seeking to assemble, arrange and connect them in ways that speak to concepts that I am visually processing. I question everything and take time to research materials- considering their historical/timely functions and associations. It is in the way I arrange and assemble the materials that gives space for the concepts to take form and present themselves. I enjoy discovering the many different ways a material can be manipulated, taken apart and put back together. I am always looking for the double/triple meanings/functions of the words that are used to define, describe and label the various materials. I draw upon this language for guidance in my decision-making assemblage processes.
My works represent rituals of rebirthing and initiation, of reevaluating, dismantling and rebuilding “self” through natural and man-made materials. Its focus is considering every perspective and then shedding—letting go in order to reinvent, redefine, rediscover and reintroduce. Distilling collected material into anthropomorphic forms, my sculptures address the cross-section of personal narrative, cultural heritage and a shared human condition. The material and figurative interconnectedness of my works creates an on-going mythology that speaks of life and death, birth and decay. My hope is that viewers will experience their own initiation ritual for the release and (re-)introduction of our shared anatomical foundations."
