Robin F. Williams, Good Mourning, PPOW Gallery, New York
390 Broadway, 2nd Floor
September 6 - October 26, 2024
P·P·O·W is pleased to present Good Mourning, Robin F. Williams’s fifth solo exhibition with the gallery. Featuring a series of new large-scale paintings and gouaches on paper, this exhibition builds upon Williams’s previous examinations of the constructions of gender in portraiture, advertising, folklore, and social media. An avid cinephile, Williams found themself looking for ‘the paintings’ in horror films and psychological thrillers. These films cultivated a generative space for Williams, revealing transformative moments where both composition and narrative collide. In Good Mourning, Williams blends their filmic references with art historical and cultural events to develop a type of fan fiction that creates space for alternative endings.
Obscuring the line between villain, victim, and savior, each of the female protagonists within Williams’s paintings resist the confines of their prescribed role. Morally complex, they present their dualities to the viewer as they learn to escape cycles of abuse. In Out the Window, 2024, Williams invokes Carl Andre’s infamous words, “she went out the window,” in his 911 call following the murder of Ana Mendieta. Visually referencing the 1973 vampire film, Ganja & Hess, Williams pays homage to the role of the female character, Ganja Meda, as one who will go to any length to protect herself. Throughout the film, Ganja grapples with her sexuality, gender, and morality as it relates to race, class, and her bodily autonomy. In an act of self-preservation, she enters into an unholy union with a male vampire, leaving her further from her autonomy than before. In Williams’s version, the female figure is given the power to preserve her freedom by throwing that union out the window, creating a new horizon for her story.
Robin F. Williams (b. 1984) received their BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design and has presented solo exhibitions at P·P·O·W, New York, NY; Morán Morán, Mexico City, Mexico; Perrotin, Tokyo; Pace Prints, New York, NY; and Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA, among others. Robin F. Williams: We’ve Been Expecting You, Williams’s first solo institutional exhibition, was on view at the Columbus Museum of Art, April 5 - August 18, 2024. Their work has been featured in numerous group exhibitions nationally and internationally including Pictures Girls Make: Portraitures, curated by Alison Gingeras, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA; In New York, Thinking of You (Part I), Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY; I’m Not Your Mother, P·P·O·W, New York, NY; Fire Figure Fantasy, ICA Miami, Miami, FL; Present Generations, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; XENIA: Crossroads in Portrait Painting, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY; Nicolas Party: Pastel, Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY; SEED, curated by Yvonne Force, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY. Their work is in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Collection Majudia, Montreal, Canada; the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; and X Museum, Beijing, China; among others.
