Robin F. Williams: We’ve Been Expecting You
Columbus Museum of Art
Located in Lower Level Walter Wing
On view April 5–August 18, 2024
Admission Information
Robin F. Williams: We’ve Been Expecting You is included with the cost of general admission.
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Exhibition Description
The Columbus Museum of Art is pleased to organize and present the first solo institutional exhibition featuring the work of the Columbus-born, Brooklyn-based artist, Robin F. Williams (born 1984). The exhibition includes work from a seventeen-year timeframe, highlighting recurring themes in Williams’ work including the body, gender and identity expression, digital trends and artificial intelligence, folklore, and the supernatural. These paintings trace intriguing changes in Williams’ oeuvre while highlighting the dynamism within her technical process.
Williams’ early paintings reference art historical styles and genres with wry, dreamlike twists. Many of these works challenge gender expectations, for example, men in repose and women engaging in pleasurable activities without guilt. Film is another signature theme in Williams’ work. In one such passage, renderings of female actresses from iconic movies like Rosemary’s Baby and Pulp Fiction are captured in still-shot frames and re-named “Siri” after Apple Inc.’s digital assistant, thereby commenting on the feminization of AI technology. Throughout, figures are presented as fully conscious of the viewer, evidenced in both moments of cool detachment, as well as mocking confrontation.
Robin F. Williams: We’ve Been Expecting You is the artist’s first exhibition that includes works spanning from her early career to the present day. By positioning the painted figures as active agents “expecting” the viewer, the artist prompts the visitor to engage with the experience of being perceived by these intriguing and skillfully rendered paintings.
Exhibition Catalog
Robin F. Williams: We’ve Been Expecting You PRE-ORDER*
*Pre-ordered catalogs are expected to ship mid-August 2024. Each pre-order will come with a complimentary postcard book of work from We’ve Been Expecting You.
$49.95 USD
Thank You to Our Supporters
Robin F. Williams: We’ve Been Expecting You has been generously underwritten by the Scantland Family
The following donors are gratefully acknowledged for supporting both Robin F. Williams: We’ve Been Expecting You and Marie Laurencin: Sapphic Paris
Champions
A donor who wishes to remain anonymous
Carol Andreae and Jim Garland
Beth Crane and Richard McKee
Betsy and Brian Ross
Benefactors
Carol and Dave Aronowitz
Felicia Bernardini
Kiehner Johnson Family Fund
Peggy and Bob Walter
Seanna and Matt Walter
John Wirchanski
Friends
A donor who wishes to remain anonymous
Lucy Ackley and Robert Collier
Ben Addison
Ron and Louisa Green
Mary Lazarus
Gabriel J. Mastin
Peg Mativi
Mary Ellen Ryan
Members of Stonewall Trailblazers
Robin F. Williams, Prom Night Reckoning (detail), 2023. Oil and acrylic on canvas. Green Family Art Foundation; courtesy Adam Green Art Advisory. Courtesy of the artist; Morán Morán, Mexico City; and P·P·O·W, New York. Photo by JSP Art Photography
