Origin — Daniella Williams
Solo Exhibition
Origin
Daniella Williams
Daniella Williams, Lunging Trees, 2026
Origin
Daniella
Williams
Origin marks a shift in Daniella Williams’ ongoing exploration of observation, intimacy, and the act of looking — expanding her inquiry into how we experience ourselves through our relationships to others and to the world around us.
Turning toward the natural world, the exhibition considers what might emerge when the body is released from the pressures of being seen, and when the figure is no longer defined in isolation from its surroundings.
Across the works, figures move through open spaces, shared moments, and natural environments, becoming increasingly immersed in the landscapes they inhabit. The result is a quieter examination of presence — one shaped less by performance and more by movement, connection, and physical experience.
Exhibition Statement
On Origin
In Origin, Williams moves away from the contained intimacy of portraiture and toward a wider field of experience. The figure remains central, but no longer as an isolated subject positioned primarily for observation.
Instead, figures move through landscape, encounter one another, and occupy space with an ease that shifts the relationship between viewer, subject, and environment. Nature becomes more than a setting; it becomes an active part of the figure’s experience, reflecting an inherent connection between the body and the natural world.
The exhibition considers how our sense of self is experienced through proximity, embodiment, and our relationship to the environments we inhabit. In doing so, Origin asks what becomes possible when the subject is allowed to exist beyond the expectations placed upon the image, and instead understood as part of a larger living world.
Exhibition
Selected Works
& Installation
Selected works and views from Origin at Black Rabbit Gallery, Toronto.
Public Program · In Conversation
Daniella
Williams
in conversation with
Emilie Croning
Presented in conjunction with Origin, Daniella Williams joined Emilie Croning for a conversation exploring the ideas, experiences, and processes informing the exhibition.
The afternoon brought the artist’s practice into conversation with the exhibition itself, offering audiences a closer look at Williams’ evolving relationship to intimacy, observation, landscape, and the figure.
In Conversation · September 26, 2026
Press & Related Material
Origin
in Context
Black Rabbit Contemporary Art Gallery Opens in Regent Park
Watch Feature →Artist
Daniella
Williams
Daniella Williams examines intimacy, observation, and the relationships between self, other, and the surrounding world through narrative-based oil painting.
Daniella Williams is a Canadian figurative painter based in Toronto. Her practice explores intimacy, observation, and the relationship between the body and its surroundings. Working primarily in oil, Williams draws from lived experience and everyday gestures to construct scenes that move between the familiar and the psychologically unresolved. Asking the viewer to consider their role as a voyeur within a private moment.
Williams holds a BFA in Studio Art and Art History from the University of Guelph. She has further developed her practice through residencies at the New York Academy of Art in New York, The Pouch Cove Foundation in Newfoundland, Casa Lü Parque in Mexico City, and The Church in Sag Harbor, New York.
In 2025, Williams received a grant from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation in recognition of her work in representational painting.
Her work has been presented in solo and group exhibitions including Time and Place at Sixteen Eleven Studios, People's Paintings at She Said Gallery, Daniella Williams at The Drake Hotel, and Invisible String at Gagné Contemporary. She has also exhibited at The Artist Project in Toronto.
Williams lives and works in Toronto.
View Artist →Exhibition Information
Daniella Williams
September 10 – October 8, 2026
7–10 PM
Daniella Williams with Emilie Croning
September 26, 2026 · 2–4 PM