Robin F. Williams
Robin F. Williams
Out Lookers, 2021
oil and acrylic on canvas
60 x 60 ins.
152.4 x 152.4 cm
The Columbus Museum of Art is pleased to organize and present the first solo institutional exhibition featuring the work of the Columbus-born, Brooklyn-based artist, Robin F. Williams (born 1984). The exhibition includes work from a seventeen-year timeframe, highlighting recurring themes in Williams’ work including the body, gender and identity expression, digital trends and artificial intelligence, folklore, and the supernatural. These paintings trace intriguing changes in Williams’ oeuvre while highlighting the dynamism within her technical process.
Robin F. Williams
Cold Brew, 2018
oil and acrylic on panel
40 x 30 ins.
101.6 x 76.2 cm
Williams’ early paintings reference art historical styles and genres with wry, dreamlike twists. Many of these works challenge gender expectations, for example, men in repose and women engaging in pleasurable activities without guilt. Film is another signature theme in Williams’ work. In one such passage, renderings of female actresses from iconic movies like Rosemary’s Baby and Pulp Fiction are captured in still-shot frames and re-named “Siri” after Apple Inc.’s digital assistant, thereby commenting on the feminization of AI technology. Throughout, figures are presented as fully conscious of the viewer, evidenced in both moments of cool detachment, as well as mocking confrontation.
Robin F. Williams
Bechdel Yetis, 2020
oil, acrylic and Flashe on canvas
96 x 66 ins.
243.8 x 167.6 cm
Robin F. Williams: We’ve Been Expecting You is the artist’s first exhibition that includes works spanning from her early career to the present day. By positioning the painted figures as active agents “expecting” the viewer, the artist prompts the visitor to engage with the experience of being perceived by these intriguing and skillfully rendered paintings.
Robin F. Williams
Prom Night Reckoning, 2023
oil and acrylic on canvas
48 x 36 ins.
121.9 x 91.4 cm
Robin F. Williams
Final Girl Exodus, 2021
oil and acrylic on canvas
78 x 144 ins.
198.1 x 365.8 cm
Robin F. Williams
Out Lookers, 2021
oil and acrylic on canvas
60 x 60 ins.
152.4 x 152.4 cm
Robin F. Williams
Bechdel Yetis, 2020
oil, acrylic and Flashe on canvas
96 x 66 ins.
243.8 x 167.6 cm
Robin F. Williams
Cold Brew, 2018
oil and acrylic on panel
40 x 30 ins.
101.6 x 76.2 cm
Robin F. Williams
Swoon at the Water Pump, 2010
oil on canvas
42 x 64 in.
106.68 x 162.56 cm
Robin F. Williams
Tired Prince, 2010
oil on canvas
60 x 44 in.
152.4 x 111.76 cm
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
We've Been Expecting You (Installation View) Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, Ohio, April 5 – August 18, 2024. Photo: Luke Stettner.
Robin F. Williams is not afraid of the dark. Their current paintings explore the roles and fates of women in horror films, particularly B-movie slashers.
“Framing the show as a group of paintings that are actually anticipating the viewer, or expecting the viewer, I hope changes the context that you experience them.”
Robin F. Williams, whose first solo museum show opened this month in her hometown in Ohio, is evolving through her works, which are often injected with humor.
Two women who lived a century apart created fascinating, striking paintings − mostly of women – that are now on view at the Columbus Museum of Art.
Robin F. Williams' work is even more profound, mysterious and technically masterful when seen over the course of decades of progress.
