Robin F. Williams
Region: Northeast
My work exists at the intersection of genre painting and
portraiture. Most recently, my subjects are fictional women in
unexpected or awkward poses. They provide the viewer with
a dark but humorous version of their most culturally valuable
attributes (sex appeal, youth, style, grace). In doing so, the
figures expose the backhanded offer of limited power these
traits promise to women.
The surfaces within a given work shift greatly in texture and
application, ranging from oil to airbrush to stained raw canvas.
Each painting is an assemblage of dueling edges, approaching
some form of realism or surrealism. The surface contradictions
nod to the content: female bodies in conflict with their
unsanctioned desires. By using the language of 1970s print
advertisements, I aim to reinterpret this imagery, previously
appropriated from art history, for a contemporary take on
female sexuality.