A closer look

Actual life is present in the making of these paintings. You feel that. That’s to say that Williams’ way of painting, his attention to surfaces of skin, hair, and painted plaster, is also a way of insisting that what you’re seeing actually took place. That whatever is taking place is an event to which the painted canvas bears witness. The precision of Williams’ rendering, especially when two different kinds of surface meet (the PVC jacket and rose petals in Coterie is one of many moments like this), seems to be a way of saying this really happened. The testimony his patient naturalism brings into view is one embedded in a startling encounter with the visual world.

Ben Street, art historian and author