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Walter Robinson
Boneyard Midori, 2003
wood, epoxy, rubber
118” x 110” x 42” |
Oakland
Museum of California (OMCA) Off-Site presents Walter Robinson:
Greenhouse at the Sculpture Court in Oakland City Center.
This exhibition transforms 1111 Broadway’s atrium lobby into
an eerie, fantastical environment featuring the uncanny constructs
of San Francisco artist Walter Robinson.
Greenhouse is a survey of experiments with biomorphic forms that
Robinson has worked on over the past seven years. The earliest rough-hewn
pieces were begun during the artist’s residency at the Djerassi
Foundation in Woodside, California. This residency afforded Robinson
the opportunity to work at a large scale with fallen trees in the
outdoors. His mutating plant forms sprouted organically out of the
natural surroundings and evolved over time into glossy wood-and-epoxy
animal-based forms.
The animal species–tar pets, sparkle pups, and brillo
giraffes–stem
from Robinson’s explorations into African animal fetishes and
his interest in collecting children’s toys. He explains, "I
was struck by the powerful physical immediacy of such simple forms
(essentially a torso and four legs), and the way our human brains
and bodies react to them in biologically prescribed ways–with fright
or curiosity or empathy, etc. It’s as if, as animals ourselves,
we’re compelled to interpret their intent toward each other
and us."
Robinson’s animals are "skinned" with layers of
epoxy, pigments, and metalflake borrowed from the “pop” vocabulary
of another chapter of his work. According to Robinson, the seductive
candy-colored bodies suggest the ways science has manipulated various
life forms to appeal to our consumer culture fixated on pets, meat,
beauty, virility, drugs, and immortality.
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Walter Robinson
Spring and Gridlock II (Installation view), 1999
wood dimensions vary |
The investigation of these ideas led Robinson to an understanding
of our childlike wonderment of nature, so often tempered with the
dread and awe of its unpredictability and power.
Robinson has shown extensively throughout California, including
Villa Montalvo, Saratoga; the San Jose Museum of Art; Headlands
Center
for the Arts, Sausalito; the Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek; and
the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artists Gallery, among others.
He
is represented in numerous public and private collections, including
the di Rosa Preserve in Napa and the Djerassi Foundation in Woodside.
Walter Robinson is represented by the Catharine Clark Gallery, 415.399.1439,
www.cclarkgallery.com.
Organized
by the Professional Services division of the Oakland Museum of
California. |
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