Metropolis

Palo Gallery is pleased to present Charlie Roberts, Metropolis, the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery. This latest body of work builds upon the artist’s magical realistic iconography, focusing on scenes of urbanity and the ways his characters move through public spaces. The keystone of this exhibition is his monumental reimaging of Otto Dix’s 1927-1928 painting, ‘Metropolis’. Robert’s painting, of the same name, takes direct inspiration from Dix’s seminal triptych, yet Roberts’ takes a different approach to Dix’s immediate socio-political critiques. Using a lighter touch, Roberts’ takes the complex scenes of a thriving metropolis (with clear references to New York) and instead explores the inherent strangeness of human interaction. His figures are often intertwined, yet clearly isolated and wrestling with internal strife. It is no mistake that the central painting of this exhibition relates directly to a painting that represents the Weimar Republic and its many ironies, hypocrisies and impending horrors. In our current era of excess and political uncertainty, the themes of Dix’s Metropolis loom large, and yet Roberts uses that opportunity to explore the more contemporary phenomena of social isolations in urban, online and political spaces. Rather than naming the similarities of the political divisions both we and Dix experience, Roberts aims to dissect our state and selfhood, perhaps as a cause or result of our current socio-political conditions. Roberts’ renders his paintings with a splendor of art historical references and influences. The mannerist forms of Parmigianino blend with the perspectival density of Pontormo, while the fine details of each painting reveal surreal twists in the style of Bosch. From a painterly perspective, Roberts has been scrupulous in studying the technique of Dix, but also the Dutch and Northern Renaissance masters that Dix sought inspiration from. Centuries of historical references, techniques and even brushstrokes have been picked by Roberts to create a familiar yet wholly unique style that is attuned to our current moment. In other smaller works, Roberts zeros in on individual subjects and isolates them within the confines of the pictorial frame.‘Dinner Jacket’, for example, depicts a quintessential Roberts-style figure in a restaurant scene reminiscent of Metropolis, but only allows the viewer to study her expression which lies somewhere between disgust and deep thought rather than examine the scene unfolding around her.. This same technique of intentional isolation is repeated in streetscapes, offices and nightclubs, areas typical of social interaction. Other paintings focus on non-human subjects with large inferences toward social interaction. An over-laden seafood platter or a coin flipping in front of the New York skyline hints at the inferences of sociability and its weight while removing direct human reaction. Rather than feeding the viewer direct assumptions about our current culture and its predicaments, Roberts uses an exposed, expressive and dreamlike observation that forces us to examine the stories of these subjects in their cities and what it might reveal about ours. Currently situated in Norway, American artist Charlie Roberts (b. 1983 Kansas, USA) receives his creative inspiration from traditional art, pop culture, hiphop, comics, folk art, and artists such as Matisse, Ensor, Florine Stettheimer, etc. Roberts explores across different media, blurring the boundaries of forms, breaking established models for art and creation. Charlie Roberts has involved himself in wood sculpting, ceramic production and oil painting. Roberts has the courage to try to create with new materials, styles and techniques; filling his work with energy and unique expressions. Roberts elongates his figures, making them slimmer and giving them seemingly impossibly long limbs; featuring a cast of humans, animals, and hybrid creatures enacting bizarre, surreal scenarios. One might discover a universe of childhood fantasies referring to Greek myths, fables, ancient narratives and folklore. His works are rendered in different shades of blue and washed-out residual colors, creating a mysterious and ethereal atmosphere. Educated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada and Kansas University, he has held more than 40 individual exhibitions and participated in more than 30 group exhibitions around the world.

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