Robin F. Williams’ latest solo show Out Lookers at P·P·O·W teeters between dream and nightmare. It’s unnerving and off-putting with witches, ghosts and trolls whose eyes burn like balls of fire. At the same time, it’s exciting, inviting and challenges us to embrace discomfort. Even the accompanying catalogue by Carmen Maria Machado starts out with a degree of unease: “Come Here. Come Here. Do you believe in ghosts? It doesn’t matter. They believe in you.” Out Lookers plays upon this discomfort and invites the viewer to enter Williams’ supernatural world full of subtle references to urban legends, climate change and horror films. Reframing the way in which women are portrayed in popular culture as scapegoats or mistrusted characters, Williams’ figures are powerful, larger than life and waiting to stare right back at the viewer.

The largest work in the show, Final Girl Exodus (2021), plays upon the horror film trope in which one woman remains at the end of the film to confront the killer. She is often the subject of sequels, doomed to relive the same trauma over and over again. Williams creates a new narrative for the final girl in which she and her fellow pawns come together and walk off into the sun. Is this scene foreboding? Is it triumphant? While the implication is the final girls have made it out of their horror narrative, they are all transparent, as if they’ve become ghosts. One final girl looks back and smiles. Her arm stretches around to invite you to join.

Robin F. Williams, Stalkers, 2020

The viewer is a central character throughout the show as the ghosts and trolls stare, wave and smile as you walk by. In Stalkers (2020), four women hide in plain sight behind a thin pole and look out as if you’ve just interrupted something. “Act natural” personified, the suspicious figures seem to be frozen in place, pretending to be innocent and invisible. Their bodies defy logic as they disappear behind one another. In the background, Williams has painted a cartoonish forest of leaves with pairs of bright dots that recall the piercing eyes of trolls seen in other paintings. The title Stalkers implies being watched or pursued, but who exactly is doing the stalking? The eyes hidden in the background appear to watch the viewer and the women, the latter of which also smile creepily at the viewer, who in turn watches back.

Robin F. Williams, A Sound Around No One, 2021

The work perhaps most grounded in reality, A Sound Around No One (2021), features a rainbow-speckled, supernatural figure calling out into the world beyond the canvas. Their mouth is open as wide as possible and the full force of their body is behind the sound they’re trying to make. Behind the figure is a smoky forest. Seeing the desperation in the gesture and the apparent smoke billowing behind the figure’s head feels personal. Williams is a dedicated climate activist and member of Artists Commit, a group that shares resources on sustainable art practices and tips on how to keep galleries accountable. P·P·O·W is tracking the carbon footprint of Out Lookers and will donate to permanent, old-growth forest conservation at the end of the show. It’s hard not to see a parallel between climate activists and the figure trying so hard to raise alarms in the smoky forest.

Robin F. Williams, Troll, 2021

There is so much more to say about Williams’ paintings in Out Lookers. She has a remarkable ability to combine techniques, textures and colors and engages with many topics in subtle ways. You may be creeped out, you may be inspired or you may have nightmares of a troll with fireball eyes. What is certain is that these works, ghosts and all, will make you feel something. I for one can’t wait to see them again.

Out Lookers is on view at P·P·O·W through November 13, 2021.