Robin F. Williams’ fifth solo exhibition, Good Mourning, will be on view at P.P.O.W. Gallery from September 6 through October 26, 2024. The show builds on the artist’s previous examinations of gender in advertising, pop culture, and film with radiant imagination and a masterful hand. This lean into cinema motions toward its power in defining collective memories and social norms in the off-screen world.
Through creating these horror-inspired gouaches, Williams brings attention to figurative tropes of women in these films as they look for the ‘paintings’ in popular B-slashers and psychological thrillers, such as Carrie, Suspiria, Ganja & Hess, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. From gaping screams to peeking heads behind door frames, these recurrences lend themselves to the ‘fan fiction’ approach to the show’s other half.
Their oil paintings muddy the narrative traditions between villain, victim, and savior. These large-scale works capture women at pivotal moments of revelation, catharsis, or vulnerability, as each of Williams’ protagonists hold their fate in their hands. With historical references to Ana Mendieta and Édouard Manet’s “The Execution of Emperor Maximilian”, the concept of alternative endings moves beyond narrative concept, taking shape as formal cues.
“Like art history, Williams’ timeline is not linear,” says curator Sarah Berenz, “but progresses, borrows, blends, and folds back on itself to progress and reinvent again.” Good Mourning will coincide with the release of the first monograph on the artist’s work, Robin F. Williams: We’ve Been Expecting You.
