Artist Bio

Brad Robson (b. 1976) is a painter based in Sydney, Australia, whose work is recognized internationally. His expressive oil paintings have been exhibited in galleries across the UK, Europe, Australia, and the US, earning him a reputation as one of the most exciting contemporary painters today.

In the studio, Robson paints works of sweet pop-culture nostalgia - then subjects them to attack. Erasing squeegee strokes disfigure iconic figures, transforming them into something new. Something more. Gods from art, cinema and cartoon culture are assaulted, detained and questioned. It’s a traumatic process but through it something impossible happens. He brings the dry husks of our cultural dead back to life.

By damaging immortal, unchanging pop-exteriors, Robson gives a glimpse of what has been lost. He restores to Marilyn Monroe the vivacious life stolen by a million knock-off coffee mugs and t-shirts. On Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse, he casts a spell of real-world believability, far stronger than any cast by a Disney fairy. To each and every pop-culture icon he paints – he gives back an essence of truth and immediacy we’ve long since lost. His work changes the unchangeable, makes it immediate and brings it so close we can almost reach out and touch it. So real it seems to breathe. That, itself, is more than a little bit magic...

Self Portrait.