Practice
Williams works in both oil and acrylic, utilizing layers of brushwork, airbrushing, stenciling, and sponging to achieve her vivid imagery and highly stylized figures. [6]
In an interview with Forbes (2024), Williams states, “I like to think of the figures in my work as having some amount of self-awareness or consciousness and it's a way to play with the power dynamic between the viewer and the figure in the painting.” In her work, Williams confronts stereotypes of female sexuality and representation in pop culture. [7]
Themes and I=influences
In an interview with Ted Loos, published by The New York Times (2024), Williams speaks about the influence of George Tooker, Édouard Manet and George de La Tour, whose works deploy queer subtext, implications of the viewer, and chiaroscuro respectively. [8]
In recent works like Slumber Party Martyrs (2023), Williams takes inspiration from horror films, stating "We live vicariously through these feminized emotions, which are human emotions. For me, it’s about gaining access to the full range of emotions that we’ve decided are appropriate only for certain genders at certain times." In many of her paintings, her female figure's gazes await the viewers' eyes, exploring the themes of women becoming their own agents in the experience of being viewed. [9]
In her exhibition Good Mourning (2024), these works also explore constructions of gender in portraiture as seen with her earlier works, but focus on a retelling of the female narrative in horror films and psychological thrillers. Her paintings assume a transformed narrative and alternative ending for these female protagonists who are otherwise depicted in a cycle of abuse in these slasher films. [10]
Commenting on her exhibition Out Lookers (2021) with Cultured Magazine, Williams says "The pieces in Out Lookers are concerned with our relationship with the environment, more specifically our understanding of our bodies as separate from the environment and the problems that arise from that hierarchical misconception. We think of nature as something we can control, dominate and exploit indefinitely. The environment is just our own larger body. In this exhibition, the solidness of the figures is purposefully ambiguous. There’s no clear distinction between their bodies and the environment. They’re all windows onto a larger system that connects them all." She states how some of her work such as A Sound Around No One was influenced by art historical references including Edvard Munch’s The Scream and Francisco Goya’s Saturn Devouring His Son. [11]
In Your Good Taste Is Showing (2017), Williams presents women in the poses of fashion-magazine advertising. [12]
