Voltz Clarke Gallery is pleased to present Litany, a solo show, by Khalilah Birdsong.
Khalilah Birdsong creates large-scale abstract paintings and installations that combine the physicality of medium with finely calibrated balance. Her process employs loose, free gestures and has deep roots in her surrounding environment. Whether hunkering down in the North Georgia mountains, studying at Goldsmith's in London, or relocating to the rain forests of Maui, Hawaii, Birdsong surrounds herself with nature and frequently explores its influence. Such effects are sensationally evident in her work.
The show title stems from Audre Lorde’s poem, “A Litany for Survival” which Birdsong also used to title the largest painting in her Goldsmiths Master of Fine Arts Degree show. The artist created work based on thought experiments around how we shift and change our circumstances. These paintings offer a litany of how we might recalibrate in life.
Khalilah Birdsong was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1977 and was raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Creating large-scale abstract paintings and installations, she has exhibited with galleries in Atlanta, Georgia, Cincinnati, Ohio, New York, New York, and Hamburg, Germany. The artist has had solo and group exhibitions in the United States, Japan, and Italy. Birdsong’s paintings are in private and corporate collections around the world, including commissioned works. The artist currently lives and works in London.
In 2019, the abstract painter was named by Contemporary Art Curator Magazine (London, England) as “100 Future Contemporary Artists in the World.” Birdsong was invited to participate in the XIIth Florence Biennale in Florence, Italy where she exhibited four large-scale paintings and installation work in the fall of 2019. In 2020, she was awarded a Hambidge Fellowship for the Creative Arts & Sciences.