Randal Robins
Hometown: Dallas
My work explores the intersection between my childhood drawings, curiosities, fascinations, and memories. I am focused on objects within the spaces where I grew up, that have fueled my imagination and stylistic proclivities. These objects operate as symbols, megaliths, and hieroglyphs with the understanding that the surface is a liminal space for these configurations to interact and make new meaning. I explore family history, Jewish decadence, inherited taste, fantasies, embellishment, the infinite realm, and anthropomorphized artifice. The almost Neoplatonist pursuit for a personal aesthetic of beauty is always paramount. Thus, the work has a sentimentality to it and an object-like quality that filters through my truths. I seek to find the common threads between the objects that I have been obsessed with, motifs within my larger body of work, and overarching curiosities that have caused me to wonder.
Website: RandalRobins.com
"Tapestry, Interior Mindscape, Shield, Forging Ahead, The Observer's World, Twin Stars, Cherubim," 2021
Oil, gesso, Swarovski crystals, lithography
various sizes
Nine colorful 2D pieces arranged together on a white wall — separately named as Mindscape, a blue-and-gold globe; Shield, with lines of various colors; Forging Ahead, a pink-and-white lithograph of running horses; Tapestry, a festive carousel; Cherubim, two crowned guards flanking the Tapestry; The Observer's World, a globe; and Twin Stars, a gold ring with two red spheres.
"Across Space and Time, Macrocosm," 2021
Oil, acrylic, Swarovski crystal, plaster, gold leaf
Top to bottom 24 x 48; 60 x 48 in.
Three colorful 2D pieces are arranged vertically on a white wall. A top panel is abstract with a dark blue background with red and yellow lines across the picture plane. Below this is a square panel that resembles outer space in dark blue with white dotted shapes and larger objects that look like jewelry. Beneath these, a small golden three-dimensional head wears a turban-like hat.
"Coat of Arms, Vanitas, Fractal Universe," 2020
Oil and gesso on cradled birch panel and board
Left to right 48 x 24; 48 x 36; 48 x 24 in.
Four colorful 2D pieces are arranged together on a white wall. Three rectangular panels hang side by side below a panel shaped like a crowning cornice. The large central panel's colorful line drawing depicts objects sitting on a narrow shelf.