Khalilah Birdsong is a painter with a studio practice based in Atlanta, Georgia. The scale and evidence of physicality of her paintings echoes Alfred Leslie, Joan Mitchell, Jean Riopelle and the late abstract paintings of Gerhard Richter. Birdsong differs from many of these early abstract painters in that while many of those artists were tied to references to nature, and a looser freer gesture, she combines physicality with a precision and a finely calibrated balance in her work. This speaks to her own personal gestalt, rather than any movement or school of painting defined by social milieu or a specific time. Birdsong’s work can be found in the private collections of President Barack Obama and Tyler Perry.