I love it when a press pack makes me hope there’s one more work behind every photo I open. That’s exactly what happened with the documentation of Issue 03 featured artist and Unibrow Radio guest Robin F. Williams’ London debut Act Natural with PPOW Gallery. On top of that, each work had me zooming in as far as technology allows, moving around the entire tableau and enjoying how these mind-benders are rendered.
Let me start by saying I’m all about artists who work intuitively and improvise through the process. But at the same time, I can fully appreciate works that’ve been well thought through, preplanned, color-coordinated, composed, and then seemingly effortlessly executed. And Williams works exactly like that. They patiently gather thoughts and ideas, build concepts, and then start sketching and drawing them on paper. From there, things switch to gouache or pastel studies, before finally approaching the canvas. But once there, they seem to know in advance how to make every mark, where to build surfaces and textures, and how to concoct the impossible scenes and their numinous ambiance with gradients, overlays, light, and narrative.
And as impressive as their execution is, these paintings are quite literally fantastic in what they are. Letting imagination and ideas roam through art history, across mythologies, into science fiction, and everything in between, Williams’s builds hybrids of concepts, marvels, and iconic imagery. Just as nonchalant, even playful strokes clash with the tight, calculated image, Williams twists and morphs mythical creatures, religious archetypes, and cultural icons into bizarre new propositions. Open to any kind of time- and space-travel and coexistence, they make familiar hand gestures, classic iconography, and compositions serve speculative, sci-fi ideas and cheeky metaphors. And all this is only scratching the surface. So, if you’re in London, please do yourself a favor and treat your peepers to these, and your brain to the zine published for the occasion. And good luck acting natural as you do. —Saša Bogojev
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