Sam Robbins, Strangled in moonlight, 2019, oil on canvas, 32” x 38”
These flashes
Sam Robbins
February 8, 2020 - March 21, 2020
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 8, 7-9pm
Castellain Gallery is pleased to present These flashes by Sam Robbins. Robbins constructs compositions that gather together the glimmers of everyday life, blending abstraction with glimpses of the representational. This exhibition features his most recent paintings which highlight the artist’s experimentation with a darker palette and a larger scale.
Robbins’ paintings are built from a flux of drips, impasto, and sweeping gestures in rhythmic conflict. Purposeful brushwork welcomes mishap and embraces gravity. In his latest body of work, the artist oscillates between expansiveness and constraint. Loose brushstrokes are contained by borders of color, contributing a sense of confinement alongside a heightened intensity. Scratched surfaces reveal layers of labor and unearth swaths of color both on paper and on canvas. Reflected in these paintings are tantalizing tidbits of the everyday.
Sam Robbins (b. 1995 Baltimore, MD) is a Brooklyn-based artist and designer. His paintings, drawings, and prints present memories of experience, investigate temporalities, and challenge distinctions between representation and abstraction. He earned a dual BA in Visual Arts and New Media/Digital Design from Fordham University in 2018. Robbins has exhibited work in New York at the Hayden Hartnett Exhibition Space, Castellain Gallery, Lipani Gallery, and Greenpoint Gallery. In 2016, he was the recipient of the Ildiko Butler Travel Award.