Brian Robertson (b.1978, American)
Within the hyper-specific lies the universal. It is from this ethos that Brian Robertson takes thoughts, images, and narratives from inside himself and translates them into painting, forming a kind of surreal investigation of self within each piece. In some cases, this nod towards self-reflection and portraiture is obvious, such as in a recent body of work wherein Robertson utilizes his own clothing and body but replaces his head with some form of organic matter, most often a cactus — a nod to his hometown roots in New Mexico. However, in other instances the portraiture operates more abstractly, almost like a metaphor, and a smattering of objects can serve as stand-in figures that represent a mood, a feeling or a sensitivity.