Born 1978 Albuquerque, N.M. – Living and working in Los Angeles, CA

Brian Robertson conceptualizes paintings through a process of both traditional drawing & digital composing, working within a strict color palette of black and white. Through a painstaking study process the artist visualizes countless options within a single work before he arrives at the final composition. Once the study is complete, he employs a wide range of techniques with acrylic paint, medium, airbrush, masking, and other tools to create the final painting.

Robertson’s work is an amalgam of influences ranging from the desert landscape and internet culture through painting styles that includes geometric abstraction, Surrealism, Mid-Century still life, Japanese print design, Post-Analog painting, New Romanticism and others. Primarily using himself as the subject, Robertson combines these influences and practices to create works of introspection. At times whimsical, longing, cryptic or often a combina2on of all three, Robertson uses objects and symbols, both real and imagined through a metaphorical lens of creating complex narratives that approach the concept of self-portraiture.

In his latest body of work, Robertson has embraced the idea of self-portraiture in a literal sense, using his own body and clothes as subject matter but replacing the head of the figure with other organic matter. In some works, the head is recognizable as a cactus or organic matter, while in others, it is entirely unclear. In either case, the combination of these disparate elements creates a figure ethereal in nature and allows the artist to further explore questions of identity and self.

Brian Robertson (b. 1978, Albuquerque, NM) has exhibited in Germany, France and has been in numerous exhibitions across the United States including The Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art and had a solo presentation at Volta, NY. Robertson’s work has been reviewed by Contemporary Art Review, Hyperallergic, L.A. Canvas, The Rocky Mountain News and others. Robertson currently lives and works in Los Angeles, CA.