Robin F. Williams
About
Robin F. Williams (born 1984, Columbus, Ohio) is a contemporary painter based in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2006, initially studying illustration before transitioning to fine art. Her work explores themes of identity, gender, perception, female sexuality, and representation, drawing from social media, folklore, historical portraiture, cinema, horror films, and pop culture. Williams challenges stereotypes and systemic conventions in art history, advertising, and media through stylized, sentient female figures often described as 'zombie nudes'—androgynous, aloof supermodels or supernatural beings like witches and trolls that confront the viewer with self-awareness and agency.
Contemporary surreal figurative painting with surreal timelessness, vivid imagery, layered textures, and feminist critique
Selected Exhibitions
- Out Lookers, P·P·O·W, New York (2021)
- With Pleasure, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles (2019)
- Your Good Taste is Showing, P·P·O·W, New York (2017)
- Trailing Off, Bard College at Simon’s Rock (2016)
- Present Generations, Columbus Museum of Art (2021)
Awards
- Josephine Mercy Heathcote Fellow at The MacDowell Colony