A new body of work by Robin F. Williams is an event. They way Williams has evolved, blending styles, explored the figurative painting with a sense of possibility and cursiousity, to challenge how we see oil on canvas, sort lends itself to something special. Good Mourning, Williams’ new solo show that kicks off P.P.O.W’s fall season, may aesthetically look like a evolution but the introspection and analysis is still there: it expands on what the gallery notes is “previous examinations of the constructions of gender in portraiture, advertising, folklore, and social media.” For this showing, Williams found themself looking for “the paintings” in horror films and psychological thrillers, which in its own way is a pop-cultural and historical study, the ways in which we our culture is defined by cinematic memories and moments. Williams bends these moments, takes a fictional moment and re-fictionalizes it, as curator Sarah Berenz notes, “Like art history, Williams’s timeline is not linear, but progresses, borrows, blends, and folds back on itself to progress and reinvent again.” That, like Williams’ painting growth, is endlessly interesting. —Evan Pricco
