Born in 1984 in Columbus, OH, USA
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, USA
Robin F. Williams’s practice is an enduring engagement with the representation of women and the construction of gender in portraiture, advertising, folklore, social media, and film. Her vivid imagery is as diverse as her source material. Known for highly stylized figures composed through layers of brushwork, marbling, airbrushing, sponging, and stenciling, Williams often employs an arsenal of tools more familiar to crafting than to easel painting. These techniques anchor the lush opticality of her images in haptic relatability, humbling the gravitas of oil painting while creating richly textured surfaces that reward careful looking.
education
2006
B.F.A. Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI
solo shows
2024
Undying, Perrotin, Tokyo, Japan (forthcoming)
We've Been Expecting You, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH
2023
Watch Yourself, Morán Morán, Mexico City, Mexico
2021
Out Lookers, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
Final Resting Face, Pace Prints, New York, NY
2019
With Pleasure, Various Small Fires, Los Angeles, CA
2017
Your Good Taste is Showing, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2016
Trailing Off, Bard College at Simon’s Rock, Great Barrington, MA
2014
Sons of the Pioneers, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2011
Rescue Party, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2009
New Work, Space 414, Brooklyn, NY
2008
After Birth, Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn, NY
group shows
2024
Le Vernissage, Partie Un, Brigitte Mulholland, Paris, France
2023
Ravens and Crows, Winter Street Gallery, Paris, France
Women on the Verge, curated by Lisa Wainwright, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Pictures Girls Make: Portraitures, Blum & Poe, Los Angeles, CA, USA
This American Life, Morán Morán, Los Angeles, CA, USA
In New York, Thinking of You (Part I), Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY, USA
2022
Even a Cat Can Look at the Queen, Mrs. Gallery, Maspeth, NY, USA
I’m Not Your Mother, P·P·O·W, New York, NY, USA
Finger Bang, Galerie Perrotin, Paris, France
A Few Small Nips, Mrs., Queens, NY, USA
Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami’s Collection, ICA Miami, Miami, FL, USA
2021
Applied Anxiety, Allouche Benias, Athens, Greece
Present Generations: Creating the Scantland Collection of the Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, USA
Bitter Nest, Galerie Perrotin, Tokyo, Japan
2020
Artists for New York, Hauser & Wirth, New York, NY, USA
Fragmented Bodies, Albertz Benda, New York, NY, USA
XENIA: Crossroads in Portrait Painting, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2019
Post Analog Studio, The Hole, New York, NY, USA
Nicolas Party: Pastel, Flag Art Foundation, New York, NY, USA
2018
SEED, curated by Yvonne Force, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York, NY, USA
PLUS ONE, Project: ARTspace, New York, NY, USA
2017
Post Analog Painting II, The Hole, New York, NY, USA
Separation Anxiety, Project: ARTspace, New York, NY, USA
2016
Et in Arcadia Ego, New Museum Los Gatos, Los Gatos, CA, USA
The Woman Destroyed, curated by Anneliis Beadnell, P·P·O·W, New York, NY, USA
2015
The Earth is All I Know of Wonder: Contemporary Responses to Hartley, Driscoll Babcock, New York, NY, USA
2014
Escape from New York! New Garde Now, Gallery Poulsen Contemporary, Copenhagen, Denmark
Sargent’s Daughters, New York, NY, USA
2013
Skin Trade, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
2012
100 Little Deaths, BravinLee Programs, New York, NY, USA
Wassaic Project Summer Exhibition, Wassaic Projects, Wassaic, NY, USA
Texas Contemporary, P·P·O·W, Houston, TX, USA
Seven, P·P·O·W, Miami, FL, USA
RISD Icons, Woods-Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI, USA
2011
Suggestivism, CSUF Grand Central Art Center, Santa Ana, CA, USA
Seven, P·P·O·W, Miami, FL, USA
2010
Marked: A Show of Figure, Like the Spice Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, USA
The Antidote, Claire Oliver Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Grand Central Art Center, New York, NY, USA
2009
Vintage Violence, Space 414, Brooklyn, NY, USA
American Dream, Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Old School, Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Wassaic Project Summer Exhibition, Wassaic Projects, Wassaic, NY, USA
2008
Scope Miami, Jack the Pelican Presents, Miami, FL, USA
Emerging Artists…at any age, L.A. Art House, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2007
Scope Miami, Jack the Pelican Presents, Miami, FL, USA
Empty Nest: The Changing Face of Childhood in Art, 1880 to the Present, Nathan A. Bernstein & Co. Ltd., New York, NY, USA
Scope Hamptons, Jack the Pelican Presents, Wainscott, NY, USA
Fecal Face 7.5 Anniversary Show, 111 Minna Gallery, San Francisco, CA, USA
The Fall Season, Jack the Pelican Presents, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Winter Faction, Lineage Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, USA
2006
$760,000 Show, Senior Exhibition, ISB Gallery, Providence, RI, USA
RISD Senior Showcase, Woods-Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI, USA
RISD Senior Illustration Show, Woods-Gerry Gallery, Providence, RI, USA
2005
RISD Athena Awards, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, New York, NY, USA
public collections
Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, West Palm Beach, FL, USA
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, USA
CC Foundation, Shanghai, China
Collection Majudia, Montreal, Canada
Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH, USA
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL, USA
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada
X Museum, Beijing, China
Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK
awards
2019
Artist in Residence, La Napoule Art Foundation, Mandelieu-la-Napoule, France
2018
Visual Artist Fellowship, Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY, USA
2012
Josephine Mercy Heathcote Fellow at The MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, NH, USA
2011
MacDowell Colony Fellowship, Peterborough, NH, USA
2010
Brooklyn Academy of Music Spring “Playbill Artist,” Brooklyn, NY, USA