Sue Williams
American, b. 1954
Sue Williams’s frenetic, brightly colored paintings feature explosions of line and form that resolve into semi-abstract suggestions of genitalia, severed body parts, and internal organs. Altogether, her works embrace an edgy feminism as they reject the hypermasculine modes and themes of Abstract Expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Franz Kline. Williams often renders her representational elements, gestural marks, and vibrant color fields in thin washes of oil or bold calligraphic styles. Her paintings, which have gradually veered towards pure abstraction, continue to comment on politics, gender inequality, and sexual violence. Williams has exhibited in New York, London, Munich, Paris, Los Angeles, and Vienna. Her work has sold for six figures at auction and belongs in the collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the New Museum, and the Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.


