Bio
Dr. Lisa M. Williamson is a painter and writer based in Memphis, TN. Her interdisciplinary practice centers on abstraction and the expressive and immediate action of painting with her hands, using gesture, material, and process to explore the transmutation of emotion.
Drawing on close observation of the natural world, Williamson treats the landscape as an unstable subject, one which she considers to be a shifting field of relation—an ecology of forces that parallels interior experience. Organic structures, weathered forms, and recurrent patterns in growth and decay become conceptual anchors through which the work contends with vulnerability, endurance, and renewal. Nature operates not simply as imagery, but as an epistemology: a way of understanding how bodies and environments register time, pressure, and change.
Williamson's participation in the Arctic Circle Expedition Residency continues to inform her thinking around isolation, preservation, and the way humans and nature endure when subjected to inhospitable conditions. As a forthcoming resident at the Sam and Adele Golden Foundation Residency, Williamson is excited to further develop her ongoing investigations into abstraction, embodiment, and emotional transformation.
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Williamson received her MFA from the Memphis College of Art and her PhD from the Institute for Doctoral Studies in the Visual Arts. She is a professor at the University of Memphis.
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Education
2021 PhD in Aesthetic Theory and Philosophy as Applied to the Visual Arts, IDSVA, Europe and U.S.
2015 MFA Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN
2001 BFA Cum Laude, Painting, Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN
Awards/Grants/Fellowships (Honors/Scholarships/Residencies)
2026 The Sam and Adele Golden Foundation Residency, New Berlin, NY
2025 The Arctic Circle Expedition Residency, Svalbard, Norway
2024 Faculty Seed Grant for The Arctic Circle Expedition Residency
2024 Artist-in-Residence (A.I.R.) Studio Paducah, Paducah, KY
2023 Urban Art Commission Permanent Collection Purchase
2023 Crosstown Arts Residency, Crosstown Concourse, Memphis, TN
2023 A.I.R. Studio Paducah, Paducah, KY
2019 Marfa House Residency, Marfa, TX
2015 Art+Bio Collaborative Residency, Puerto Rico
Exhibitions (*solo)
2025/26 Polishing the Stone, ShapeShifter Gallery, Memphis, TN
2025 Drawn Together, The Ned, Jackson, TN, curated by Louis Giberson
2025 Lines That Move, Marhsall Arts, Memphis, TN (with Paul Behnke and Jodi Brewer), curated by Paul Behnke
2024 Something Solid, Marshall Arts, Memphis, TN (with Paul Behnke, Jodi Brewer, and Pam McDonnell), curated by Paul Behnke
2024 Moveable Collection Exhibit, The Urban Art Commission, Memphis, TN
2023 Cheers to the Holidays, L. Ross Gallery, Memphis, TN
2023 Paper Palooza, L. Ross Gallery, Memphis, TN
2021 Faculty Show, Crosstown Arts, Memphis, TN, curated by Richard Lou
2018 It’s About Time, Levy Gallery, Memphis, TN*
2017 Four Knowledge, Crosstown Arts, Memphis, TN, curated by Ken Hall
2016 Future Talk, The Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids, MI, curated by Heather Duffy
2015 Something Old, Something New, Memphis Theological Seminary, Memphis, TN*
2015 ArtPrize, Monroe Community Church, Grand Rapids, MI, curated by Steve Fridsma
2015 Black and White, Colors of Humanity Art Gallery
2015 MFA Thesis Show, Nesin Gallery, Memphis College of Art, Memphis, TN
Collaborations
2025 Embustero by Richard Lou, Fogelman Galleries at University of Memphis, Memphis, TN (as part of team of illustrators for Lou’s graphic book Embustero)
2024 Richard Lou Exhibition, Art Gallery, Union University (as an illustrator for his graphic book Embustero, created handwritten wall text)
2024 As Good as Gold: 50 Years of the MFA at Clemson, Clemson, SC. Featuring artist Richard Lou with my illustrations laser-cut over Richard Lou’s text for Embustero
2022 Evicted, Benjamin Hooks Library, Memphis, TN, (national traveling exhibit with renter’s rights attorney Jamie Johnson and artist Robin Salant)
2019 All Things Are Collaboration: An Anti-Solo Show, Stock and Belle, Memphis, TN (collaboration with Lacy Mitcham)
2017 Art | Race | Violence: A Collaborative Response, Crosstown Arts, Memphis, TN, in collaboration with Lurlynn Franklin, curated by Richard Lou and Dr. Ernestine Jenkins
Public Commissions
2024 Public Art Commission: Consent, installation at The Hospitality Hub Hotel, awarded by the Hospitality Hub and the Urban Art Commission, Memphis, TN
2022 Corporate Commission: Rock Gnome Lichen, scrim panel installation at the One Hotel, Nashville, TN (part of a selection of artists working with Richard Lou)
Panels/Lectures/Presentations/Workshops/Artist Talks
2025 Artist Talk for Trans-Cen-Der Art at Equity Gallery, NYC, NY, hosted by Meer Musa
2025 Apathy/Emergency: The Poetics of Data, SECAC, Panel Chair and Presenter
2025 “Don’t Go Baroque!” for Women in the Arts, Dixon Gallery and Gardens. Panel chair, Panel members: Tracy Lauritzen Wright, Lakeisha Edwards, Amy-Beth Rice, Phyllis Boger
2025 “Make Ink!” The Metal Museum, Memphis, TN, hosted by Community Outreach Director Dr. Lu Auz 2024 Art workshop at the Whitehaven Library for the Urban Art Commission’s Moveable Collection Series, Whitehaven, TN, hosted by UAC project manager Richard Echols
2024 “Southern Monuments,” Munch and Learn, Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, TN, hosted by Community Outreach Director Lacy Mitcham
2024 Art workshop at the Hospitality Hotel for unhoused women and children, Memphis, TN
2023 Artist Talk, Crosstown Arts Green Room 2023 Lecture “From Abuse to Transformation: The Interpretative Work of Counter- Confederate Structures,” SUNY Potsdam, Potsdam, NY, hosted by Dr. Sheila Neal