MOCA will be closed on Sunday February 16 due to severe weather.

Margaux Williamson, Window Front, 2025. Courtesy of the artist.

Margaux Williamson

Shoes, books, hands, buildings, and cars

April 17, 2025
— August 3, 2025

Margaux Williamson’s paintings draw from the intimate views and objects of her home, studio, bars, city streets, and the natural world around her. They are also shaped by a personal archive of gathered materials—photographs, torn magazine clippings, fragments of text, drawings, and lists. Though familiar, these source materials are reimagined by Williamson, allowing them to drift freely across her canvases. Her muted colour palette and ethereal brushwork, combined with contrasting perspectives, evoke the sensation of memories and dreams. This interplay infuses her paintings with a soft surrealism, often striking intangible chords. In her experience, paintings serve as “a refuge from words.”

What distinguishes Williamson’s work is her subtle yet evocative use of light and shadow, often lending a cinematic quality to her compositions. While rooted in figuration, her style embraces an abstract, gestural quality that invites multiple interpretations, creating a sense of both intimacy and distance.

MOCA is pleased to present a solo exhibition featuring several new and recent paintings by the artist on Floor 3 of the museum. In keeping with MOCA’s commitment to new commissions, this body of work and its presentation reflect the building’s architecture through colour, energy, and form. Dedicated to supporting local artists at pivotal moments in their careers, Shoes, books, hands, buildings, and cars highlights the evolution of Williamson’s painting practice, which has grown in both complexity and scale. It also aligns with the museum’s vision of presenting artists who engage with a range of cultural disciplines. Beyond painting, Williamson has deep connections to literature, music, and film, which she has explored through various collaborations.

About the Artist

Margaux Williamson (b.1976) was born in Pittsburgh and lives in Toronto. She completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree at Queen’s University, Kingston, and was the recipient of an exchange scholarship to the Glasgow School of Art. Her most recent paintings were exhibited in a solo exhibition at White Cube, Hong Kong, 2023, marking her second presentation with the gallery. A retrospective of her work, Interiors, opened at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in 2021, accompanied by a publication, and travelled to other museums across Canada until 2023.

Her feature-length film, Teenager Hamlet, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and is archived on UbuWeb and she also contributed movie reviews to the cultural site Back to the World. Her work has been covered by New York Magazine, The New York Times, Vogue, BOMB Magazine, The Globe and Mail, The Believer, The Huffington Post, and Momus amongst others. Her paintings can be found in the collections of the Longlati Foundation in Shanghai, Tumurun Musleum in Indonesia, Australia China Art Foundation, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the National Gallery of Canada, The Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.

Director's Council
Curator's Circle

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