Sue Williams’s early works are characterized by a cartoon-like style, often rendered in black and white, confronting sexualized violence and misogyny with unflinching rage. Over the course of the 1990s, she developed a gestural, abstract visual language that gradually moved away from narrative elements, instead becoming dominated by dynamic brushwork and vibrant color. Nevertheless, the themes of the body, power, and violence remain ever-present: from a distance, her compositions may appear as ornamental all-overs, but up close, they reveal a surprising specificity of motifs, as abstract patterns morph into anthropomorphic corporeality.
In the early 2000s, Williams reduced her compositions to bold, often neon-colored lines that evoke phallic forms, parodying the heroic masculinity of Abstract Expressionism and ironically subverting it. In response to socio-political developments in the US and beyond, her paintings from the 2010s— kinetic explosions of color and form— reflect contemporary dystopias defined by war, terror, and manipulative media. Recent works, however, combine elements from earlier phases of Williams’s practice to create complex, intricate pictorial arrangements that oscillate between figuration and abstraction, and tell of structural violence, individual trauma, memory, and resilience.
It is in the simultaneity of the personal and the political, humorous caricature, almost shocking explicitness, and painterly gestures that Sue Williams’s works unfold their compelling force. The exhibition at Belvedere 21 features paintings, drawings, and collages that span all phases of the artist’s career, from the late 1980s to the present.