Robert Lang
Robert Lang

Statement

Robert’s work explores the complexities of communication through painting and how its production functions within the wider social context. Robert’s paintings are usually derived from low quality photographic sources and often re-present archetypal romantic motifs. Robert is interested in the model of the Romantic as an allegory for personal / collective anxieties - of inward reflection while maintaining the influence of and a reciprocal dialogue with the external. This also raises ideas concerning the subjective, which is furthered through the element of aesthetic play. The economy of touch and thinned-down paint reflects the lack of detail present in the low quality source images, but Robert is also selective in the remnants carried over. Tentative washes and daubs mark the support and display an urgency to reform the essence of the image but this process also serves to revere the problems in its translation. This affirms the cyclical nature of his practice as ideas appear and return again under different disruptions. The motivation of his practice is an attempt to comprehend this logic by putting forward a position that is enactive, performative, spectative, analytical and suspect – a position that is then naturally mimicked and repeated by the viewer.

Education
2008    MA Fine Art, University of the West of England, Bristol
2004    BA (hons) Fine Art, University of the West of England, Bristol

Exhibitions
2010    Fade Away, Transition Gallery, London
            Salon10, Matt Roberts Arts, London (Selected by Peter Bonnell, Kate
MacGarry, Richard Birkett)
            Exeter Contemporary Open, (Selected by Matt Burrows, Cathy Lomax, Domo
Baal) Exeter Phoenix, Exeter
            ArtWorks 10, (selected by Timothy Hyman & Graham Crowley) Barbican Arts
Group, Blackhorse Lane studios, London
            CGP London Open Southwark Park, London
2009             ArtSway 09 Sway, Hampshire
            Drawing Open 09 Salisbury Arts Centre, Salisbury
            Cafe Gallery Projects Open Southwark Park, London
            Overview: Modern Painting Elysium Artspace, Swansea
            Particles/Particles Surface Gallery, Nottingham
2008    MA Fine Art Show UWE Studios, Spike Island Bristol
            Paint Room212, Bristol
2007    Cafe Gallery Projects Open Southwark Park, London
            PEAK Slash TROUGH The Crypt, St.Paul’s Church, Bristol
            Apollo Creed TF Space, Spike Island, Bristol
2006             Mulling over the Difference of the Other Here Gallery, Bristol
            MA Group Show Netham Workshop, Bristol

Awards
2010    Stage 2 John Moores Painting Prize
2009             Shortlisted for ArtSway Solo Show Prize
2009             Prizewinner at the Café Gallery Projects Open
2007             Prizewinner at the Café Gallery Projects Open