Upon visiting the studio of Frank James Williams, I was transported to the early Noir films I grew up with: espionage, resistance, decline, and grit, all dramatized in haunting chiaroscuro. There were few Black actors, and if they were present, were in stereotyped support roles. In the 1970s through 90s, the New Black Cinema began subverting those early noir strategies in what critic and cultural theorist Manthia Diawara called “Black Noir.” Williams’ paintings take shape from this period, where Black realism and culture shine a light through figure, shadow, architecture, and color.

A combination of pitched psychological tension with intuitive illusion, Williams unfolds contemporary Black Noir with his exhibition, Standing still. On view are new paintings with a few early selections of drawings dating from the 1980s. His subjects are family, friends, and acquaintances in unassuming dress. What pushes his paintings beyond ordinary into extraordinary are the subjects’ unrelenting gaze, their relationship to architecture, which is articulated yet austere, high and low light rendered in color, and enigmatic shadows that are performers stretched across the painting—all equal correspondents suspended in a surreal state of animation and mystery.

Williams’ work skirts easy categorization; he was often described as “a narrative artist exploring psychological and spiritual states of being.” I would expand that description, Williams’ vision embodies isolation and loneliness, conveys emboldened power, expresses vulnerability and intimacy, traverses across history, and tackles racism in life and the arts. The paintings also speak of Williams’s personal challenges recovering from two disabling strokes early in his career—all this is heralded in the paintings of Frank James Williams.

Frank James cites historical influences such as Edward Hopper and Henry Ossawa Tanner, as well as luminaries Williams met and studied with, such as Charles White, Jacob Lawrence, and William “Bill” Walker. However, upon viewing the work, it is Williams’ distilled voice that speaks with unparalleled authority in their creative practice.