P·P·O·W is pleased to present Your Good Taste is Showing, a solo exhibition by Robin F. Williams. In her third exhibition with P·P·O·W, Williams extends her longstanding interest in gender roles to the strangeness of feminine identity in our current moment. The works bring together a variety of painting techniques, including oil, airbrush, and the staining of raw canvas, resulting in lush, deeply textured works. The complexity and variety of the medium mirrors the layered narrative of the works themselves, reflecting the internal contradiction that Williams reveals in her subject. The dissonance between perceived status, internal desires and a need for self-expression, create the framework for the exhibition.

Also on view, Burn, a mixed media painting that features a sunburnt woman sitting uncomfortably on a gravestone, cigarette in hand. The work further conveys Williams’ exaggerated use of texture – the subject’s skin is described in rough, combed-through ridges of paint, which sculpt the form and highlight the damage done to the subject’s body. In contrast, the background is airbrushed, mimicking the appearance of an ad in a glossy magazine. By complicating the texture of the work, Williams creates a visceral presence on the canvas, teasing out the tension between depth and illusion and lending the image physicality. With this work, Williams again explores how the notion of “feminine sexiness” actively contradicts the reality of female desire.  Subverting two things often portrayed as sexy in an ad, sunbathing and smoking, Williams pushes them to their limits, rendering the death of a woman’s attractiveness.