RENEE ROBBINS
“Metaphoric Landscapes”
The paintings unearth interior landscapes and strive to capture a dialogue between the public and private self.

Opening Reception: Friday, October 3, 2008 6-8 p.m.
Artist Demonstration during Fulton Arts Walk 2- 4 p.m. October 4 & 5 2008

exhibit thru October 25, 2008

Chicago artist Renee Robbins uses vivid colors, rhythmic lines, and meticulous textures to create a landscape of mind, a metaphor for how our exterior and interior selves come together. Hybrid forms – created through layers of acrylic paint such as thin washes, transparent glazes, sculptural modeling paste, and gel mediums – seem to suggest complexities within the human mind. Integrated with the paint are different materials such as string, paper, sand, fabric, and lace, which create focal points and transitions between interior and exterior notions.

The work sources structures from molecular, biological, architectural, celestial, and cultural systems. Robbins sees interrelationships between systems that have public and private possibilities. For example, the patterns of internal molecular systems may be blended with the exterior structure of plants, combined with bits of an architectural framework and then embedded within a larger celestial formation.

Robbins’ previous work incorporates a broader range of systems and the public and private self were more pronounced by utilizing a very shallow space. The new works focus on specific ecosystems and employ a more atmospheric space. The private self seems more obscured through fogs and liquids without removing the interconnectedness to the public self in these ‘Metaphoric Landscapes.’

Artist Renee Robbins will demonstrate her mixed media techniques during the Fulton Arts Walk from 2 to 4 pm October 4 & 5 at Function+Art.