Exhibitions
Emergent Seas (2023)
London, United Kingdom | November 2023 | Solo Exhibition | Cromwell Place
Imbued with ancestral guidance and internal uprising, Emergent Seas is a conversation between a person stranded at Sea and the echoes of their subconscious. It is an honoring of the labor of love, dignity and self determination exercised by enslaved Africans who chose Freedom over shackles, by way of Sea. Terrell Villiers takes us through a vision of self discovery, riddled with illusions and portals for confrontation.
The collection explores themes of love, sexuality, resistance, grief and awakening, luring us into cycles and threaded patterns one must face and untangle to find their authentic self. Summoning the essence of water goddess Erzulie, Emergent Seas uplifts fluid, intergenerational and intersectional embodiments of Black Queerness, reflecting boundless autonomy and depicting kaleidoscopic nuances of the Black Trans experience.
The water is a mirror, a sanctuary, and a vessel for healing and evolution. The moon dwells as a “north star” for the subconscious, its omnipresence illuminating misconceptions and the hidden truths we chase in intimate connections and relationships. Guided by the moon’s stubborn pull, the deep waters draw the emotions into a heavy, somatic tide. Surrounded by the Sea and looming spirits, the subconscious is forced to reckon with feelings of discomfort and its own image reflected back at it — an image seemingly as elusive as the spirits themselves. The Sea’s firm, yet gentle grip, paradoxed with its expansiveness is a container for surrender, nurturing and guiding the subconscious to move through pain to reach rebirth.
My Beautiful, Dark, Illustrious Fantasy (2023)
Miami, FL | December 2023 | Solo Exhibition | Dale Zine Gallery
Through radical theory and imagination, Villiers creates a number of characters and fantasy worlds to transport both themself and the viewers to an alternate world devoid of convention. “My Beautiful, Dark, Illustrious Fantasy” is where one’s autonomy over their body and identity can be freely expressed.Through their illustrations, Villiers explores the intersectionality of Black Queerness and Transness by continuing to both archive the times, and raise awareness about the joys and plights of the Black Queer experience. It’s a celebration of identity via storytelling, and shows how it feels to be openly Black and Queer. An approach to changing a narrative and broadening the possibilities for movements as we progress towards a new vision of security and freedom.”
We Are Family (2022)
Brighton, United Kingdom | February 2022 | Socially Engaged Art Salon | Group Exhibition | Ledward Centre
With the support of The Ledward Centre Brighton, SEAS is collaborating with art curator, writer and art consultant Pacheanne Anderson, to exhibit digital artists for LGBTQ+ History Month. The exhibition aims to depict imagery of queer relationships and interactions in different parts of the queer world centring family and kinship. These representations can include images from nightlife, domestic life and celebratory but political instances such as Pride.
With a focus on kinship, collective care and community support, the works selected aim to show the audience brief snippets of what family looks like in our everyday lives.
‘The Last Supper’ (2019) - Digital Painting on Canvas 15 in x 36 in
(Pictured above)
K21 Art Vault (2021)
Shibuya, Tokyo | December 2021 | Kanon | NFT Exhibition | Neo Shibuya TV
The “K21 Art Vault” contains a collection of firsts: the first NFTs minted by established and emerging art world luminaries and the first iterations of trailblazing experiments in digital art. The collection has been assembled by an anonymous team of cryptoart originators and curators with over 50 years of collective experience leading contemporary art and digital programs at some of the most renowned cultural institutions in the world. The artists and artworks have been selected to test the limits of NFTs as a medium and means for art to create impact. The artworks will be unveiled and added to the vault over the coming weeks.
‘Club Oasis’ (2021) - Digital Painting
(First artwork of the presentation shown above)
PERMAQUEER (2021)
Miami, FL | May 2021 | MASISI x Seet Deh | WAGMIAMI Music & Arts Festival | Kanon: K21 Gallery
‘Erzulie Memorial’ (2021) - Multimedia Installation & Performance
45 trans women have transitioned to the realms beyond, here we see their rebirth in the soil and nature that surrounds us.”
Trans death is often a grave reality society would rather look away from, a reality that doesn’t exist. When I realized how much we talk and speak about the trans women we lose and then simultaneously how quickly we forget, it struck me to create a permanent way to remember them and their stories. The casket and altar, dug up, honor them in memorial, stitches a place for them in our hearts, minds, and spirits.
Terrell Villiers (they/them) - Artistic Director, Creative Director, Illustrator
Adowa Addae (she/her) - Author of Eulogies & Curatorial Writing
Emani Castillo (she/her) - Altar Creation
Logan Moises (he/him) - Casket Construction
Catherine Villalonga (they/them) - Animation Assistance
Vũ H. Khánh-Nguyên (they/them) - Painting of Casket
Twisted Dream (2021)
Los Angeles, California | April 2021 | Group Exhibition | John Wolf Gallery
Through figurative painting, sculpture, video, design, installation, and custom apparel “Twisted Dream” presents some of Los Angeles’ most exciting emerging and mid-career artists, together with an established roster of American, South American, and international talent. Large-scale paintings and intricate, narrative sculpture mix with musical legends, fashion designers, and hip-hop icons-cum-painters in a blockbuster pop-up exhibiton. In a swirling trance comes the deluge of knowing. Power collides with beauty. Force fuses with empathy. The street becomes nature. In this cross section of multiple realities.
‘The Last Supper’ (2019) - Aluminum Dibond 96 in x 51 in
(Pictured above)
‘Mania’ (2021) - Aluminum Dibond 26 in x 36 in
(Pictured above, top far right)
