Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, is pleased to present Disproportionate Upheavals, the gallery’s second solo exhibition with narrative painter Philemona Williamson. The opening reception is Saturday, November 1, from 4:00-6:00 PM. During the reception, there will be a walkthrough with the artist at 5:00 PM. The exhibition remains on view through December 20, 2025.
Philemona Williamson, based in New Jersey, is known for her figurative paintings. Williamson’s narratives of childhood and adolescence create a space of fable and memory, investigating the dissonance, possibility, and liminal state of transition. With a career spanning over forty years, she creates an iconography both personal and universal. Figures are dynamic, passionate, volatile, familiar, and strange—moving through moments of uncertainty and landscapes beyond control. Toys and objects act as repositories of emotion and memory. Poetic and open-ended, the paintings invite viewers to tap into their own stories of change, chaos, and possibility.
Disproportionate Upheavals includes eight paintings created between 2024 and 2025, along with a significant piece from 2016.
Dwelling in Discord (2025) interweaves two very different places from her childhood: the upscale Upper East Side NYC apartment where her parents worked and lived, and a small room in a Harlem hotel with a communal kitchen. From a young age, she had to navigate these contrasting worlds. Williamson affirms that the longing for home, safety, and a sense of belonging in the world never diminishes. The paintings are visually and technically fluid, with brushstrokes moving through saturated fields of color. The underlying hues in each piece emerge strongly through the figures; ambiguous gestures blur the boundaries between figures and their surroundings. Every plant, animal, object, and landscape feels resonant—as if recalling a half-remembered dream or a return to childhood memories.
A Crooked Line (2016) was inspired by Williamson’s 2015 artist-in-residence experience at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans. She explains, “I would often witness the Second Line parades held for important occasions, both joyful and somber. Here, I conjured that heightened revelry, both public and private, that seems to burst forth when one is free to be their authentic self.”
Cover image:
Philemona Williamson
Dwelling in Discord, 2025
oil on canvas
36 x 40 in