Tag: robin f williams

Robin F. Williams at PPOW Gallery

Women have been pictured as merging with the natural world throughout art history, but not quite in the subversive and sometimes sinister way that Robin F. Williams pictures the spritely athletes that populate her latest paintings at PPOW Gallery.  Using oil, airbrush, poured paint, marbling and staining, Williams creates bodies that both compliment and stand out from their environments.  Here, in a piece titled ‘Speak of the Devil,’ two characters with glowing, inhuman eyes reveal hands with flattened fingertips that match the tone of nearby leaves suggesting intriguing hybrid identities.  (On view in Tribeca through Nov 13th.  Masks required.)

Robin F. Williams, Speak of the Devil, acrylic on canvas, 57 x 57 inches, 2021.

Robin F. Williams in ‘Xenia: Crossroads in Portrait Painting’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery

Enormous, reptilian eyes and rough-hewn features give Robin F. Williams’ female characters – named Siri and Alexa – a memorable boldness that runs contrary to the perky helpfulness of their digital namesakes.  Titled ‘Siri Defends Her Honor,’ this painting casts Apple’s assistant into the role of a mob boss’s wife as played by Uma Thurman in an iconic scene from ‘Pulp Fiction,’ examining constructed AI personalities via female roles in cinema.  (In ‘Xenia:  Crossroads in Portrait Painting’ at Marianne Boesky Gallery in Chelsea, on view through Feb 15th).

Robin F. Williams, Siri Defends Her Honor, oil and acrylic on canvas, 40 x 60 inches, 2019.

Robin F. Williams at PPOW Gallery

In a distinctly contemporary update on Sylvia Sleigh’s iconic ‘70s nude male, Robin F. Williams’ new show ‘Sons of Pioneers’ features men who seem to have opted out of the go-getter mentality of their fathers; non-aggressive poses suggest a passive ideology traditionally identified as female. (At Chelsea’s PPOW Gallery through March 15th).

Robin F Williams, Gold Panner, 72 inch diameter, oil on canvas, 2013.