21st Century Sucks

Heron Arts is pleased to announce 21st Century Sucks, a solo exhibition by Tim Williams. The opening reception is June 13th, 2026 from 6-9pm. It is free and open to the public. The exhibition will be on view until July 11, by appointment only. Bold depictions of high octane elements are counterweighted by soft, floral adornments that harness quiet resiliency in Tim Williams’ 21st Century Sucks series. These heavy industrial components, along with other motifs of antiquated Muni bus tickets, comic book excerpts, graffiti, and retro geometric patterns all contend for the viewer's attention. Williams composes a dynamic relationship between high speed and stillness, flourish and collapse through his own photography and his affinity to machinery that moves to accelerate capitalism. The tension that exudes from 21st Century Sucks requires the viewer to accept that chaos and beauty have to exist together. Williams’ creative process is dense with revelation, allowing his collection of images to disclose something new about the world, adding to an inner system of curiosity, disillusionment, and nostalgia. Several works highlight the Einstein tile, a mathematical problem involving geometric tessellation, that straddles structure without repetition and order without resolution. Williams unearths older paintings and cuts them into aperiodic tiles that then form his final painting. The placement of tiles is intuition based and Williams, while keeping things open-ended, taps into the idea of constant change within a confined space.