Beachside building with multiple levels, white exterior, surrounded by sand and dunes, with water and sky in the background.

Robert's compositional technique evolved out of a life lived in Italy, New York and the accidental weekend onboard the Caribbean Islands, all essential ingredients for an artist of the Victor D'Amico Institute, The Students Art League of NY and more recently the American Academy in Rome.

Born in
Melbourne, Australia
Based in
New York, USA

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His work is shot through with melancholy and the fleetingness of life, and yet desolately beautiful. What began as photo media driven collage has moved, with remnants of that earlier practice, into slightly abstract figuration. What was collage is now "what was the altar boy seeing".

The work traces a path from anxiety to acceptance, shaped by the seemingly never-ending tragedy of life lived in New York, from the AIDS epidemic of '82 through COVID in 2020. There are echoes of Duchamp and Picasso throughout, strong panels and reflected panels that are sparer, partially effaced, with a cryptic allure to their symmetry: a Rorschach blot, a butterfly's wings. But the reflections are mismatched in weight as well as appearance.

The palette of squeezed-from-the-tube primary colours, the paint-by-number quality, seemed to deny any emotional possibility for abstraction. But something starts happening with colour. The mark-making comes alive despite the painter's reserve, as if the fragments of art history are rumbling and rattling beneath the swirling strokes.

There is sex and death. But within that, a galaxy of allusions where, even in the shadow of mortality, invention and hope might bloom. You only truly live when you become aware you will die, as Heidegger insisted, "when one becomes free for one's own death," and so can make authentic choices in your one and only life. For Robert these are life-affirming works: a calculated method that has opened onto a new artistic freedom.

Black and white butterfly-shaped inkblot with symmetrical patterns and textured appearance.

Training
Victor D'Amico Institute
Arts Student League
American Academy in Rome

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New York skyline seen from a moving vehicle with dark, cloudy skies overhead.

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Mixed media artwork combining a photograph and illustrations of women with stylish makeup, jewelry, and black-and-white clothing, with one face holding a white object near her lips and another face drawn outline.
A large decorative piece designed to look like open lips, surrounded by various colorful flowers on a white wooden floor.
Collage of cut-out images including a woman with a crown and white hair, a set of red lips, and an open mouth showing teeth.
A black and white collage-style image of a woman with exaggerated features, damaged and torn paper effects, surrounded by illustrations of bees and insects.
A collage featuring a woman with various flowers and images of religious icons on a red and pink background, with text 'KCBOWNTHE' at the bottom.
Pink poster on white wall with torn edges and clips at the top, featuring cut-out letters and images of lips and flowers, with some visible text.
Black and white poster of a woman with dark hair covering one eye, biting a finger, with red lipstick, wearing dark clothing, and a text quote at the bottom that says 'MY WORK IS PSYCHOLOGICALLY NON-SENSE'.
A poster with a cut-out mirror featuring a male face wearing glasses, with newspaper clippings surrounding it. The poster has the name 'Malcolm X.Y.Z.' at the bottom.