In his latest exhibition Waiting for Lavender, Justin Williams delves into themes of migration, belonging, and the search for a place to call home. Drawing on familial history, his upbringing in the foothills of Victoria’s Dandenong Ranges, and recent time spent in Paris and Santa Fe, Williams welcomes viewers into a world where identity, family, and the quest for stability intertwine. Waiting for Lavender is a profound exploration of the personal and collective experience of finding a place to call one’s own, and the great lengths taken to achieve this. Many figures that inhabit this body of work are in a state of movement, travelling or migrating from one place to another, and moving through a changing world as they attempt to find grounding. In other scenes the figures are firmly settled in their surroundings, having found and made a home now populated by personal objects they have accumulated throughout their journeys - a wooden mask, a quilt, a painting - laid like bricks that have built the foundations of their present.
Following the recent birth of his first child, Lavender, this body of work also carries an important personal significance for Williams. This journey of fatherhood - one that brings both joy and the weight of responsibility - parallels the themes of waiting, homecoming and belonging in these paintings. For Williams, the arrival of his daughter symbolises a new phase of life in which finding a sense of place becomes even more crucial and a sentiment he now must share and navigate as a family unit. As a parent the quest to build a secure, loving home for the next generation takes on an entirely new dimension. The exhibition’s title, Waiting for Lavender, reflects this anticipation, as well as the slow, tender process of nurturing and preparing a space for both growth and rest. Williams’ work has often reflected on his complex identity, shaped by his family’s history in pre-World War II Alexandria, Egypt. However, in Waiting for Lavender, he shifts a part of his focus forward to better understand and prepare for what is yet to come.
Alongside Williams' reflection on personal and familial histories his work is also deeply embedded in art history, drawing inspiration from the rich tradition of bucolic European modernism as well as the work of artists such as Peter Doig, Kiki Smith, Beatrice Wood and Kai Althoff. Williams' deep engagement with contemproary painters and the legacy of figuration allows him to place his work in dialogue with both past and present, even going so far as to appropriate, combine and synthesize small fragments of other paintings - an urn, leaves, a jacket or a distinctive pose.
Through personal histories and an accumulation of stories and myths, Williams reminds us that the search for home is not just about a location, but about finding peace in one’s own skin, amidst family, a resonant past, and the spaces we choose to inhabit. The paintings in Waiting for Lavender reflect this complex and enduring human quest - an act that is as much about the emotional and psychological journey as it is about geography and time.
