Christophe Roberts

Last updated
Christophe Roberts
Harvey Jackson Christophe Roberts.jpg
Born
Christophe Roberts

(1980-03-26) March 26, 1980 (age 44)
Education Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle
Known forArtist
Website christopheroberts.com

Christophe Roberts (born March 26, 1980) is a Bahamian-American multidisciplinary artist working in sculpture, graphic design, painting, and creative direction. His work explores masculinity, personal history, and consumerism by repurposing everyday objects such as building materials and up-cycled Nike shoeboxes. He has said, “A true artist can use all the tools in his box. His style transcends through multiple platforms, from digital, to organic, to textile.”. [1]

Contents

Early life

Roberts was born on the north side of Chicago in 1980. His mother, now retired, is a Chicago-based educator from Opelika, Alabama. She was a teacher, and later a principal at Brentano Math & Science Academy. His father was a government accountant born in the Abaco Islands, Bahamas . Roberts cites his mother, childhood neighbor, and his aunt, Gloria Ward, as early influences . Ward worked as a production and fashion designer for legendary artists such as Marlena Shaw, Tom Joyner, Stanley Turrentine, Stephanie Mills, Maurice Hines, and on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) film. From an early age, Roberts participated in art programs and live painting. He was reared in various Chicago neighborhoods surrounded by literature, graphic novels, and fashion books. His cousin, Ashaki Ward, is a choreographer and dancer who worked with performers like Heavy D and R. Kelly. At 15, Roberts joined Peanut Gallery, a Chicago hip-hop crew. He cites dancer, rapper, producer, and graffiti artist Anacron as a role model in his youth. The works of Todd McFarlane, HR Giger, Katsuhiro Otom, the movies Wild Style (1983) and Akira (1988) are early source materials . Roberts has said he viewed a KRS-One concert as an art piece that impacted his multidisciplinary inclinations.

Education

Roberts attended Ogden Public School and Francis W. Parker School in Chicago. He earned his BFA at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. [2] His studies in the Design Department included illustration, film, web design, welding, and music. Although Cornish did not have a study abroad program, Roberts pursued independent study at Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom. During his year in Europe, Roberts visited museums and was inspired to focus on painting after seeing pieces by Pablo Picasso and Euan Uglow in person. Following graduation, Roberts remained in Seattle for three years, selling modern cubist paintings (using doors as canvases) in coffee shops, on the main drag, and to local drug dealers. In this time Christophe Roberts also produced and recorded over 100 songs, releasing an album of hip-hop and electronic music .

Career

Roberts returned to Chicago in 2006, working as a bar back at a club while selling his paintings. Over the next several years, Roberts participated in numerous group shows, establishing relationships with major art spaces/culture-makers such as Afropunk, Columbia College, DePaul Art Museum, Chicago Art Department, and Zhou B Art Center. After a string of successful shows in 2010, Lyons Weir Gallery (New York) began representing Roberts . At this time, Christophe Roberts was painting large animal figures and working in graphic design. It was in this period Christophe Roberts innovated his celebrated and widely commissioned sculptures made from Nike shoeboxes. He is the only known artist working with these materials, and is featured on Nike’s website . About this work, Roberts has said the animal figures are a “metaphor for his emotions” and ambitions. Roberts was encouraged to vary his practice and processes when considering Renaissance artists, about whom he says, “always had a team that helped push forward their vision. They were not only artists, they were poets, they were architects, they were painters, they were muralists. ” Following the flooding of his studio space in Pilsen, and a car accident that required five months of physical therapy, Roberts decided to move to Harlem. He immediately began work in the fashion industry designing t-shirts for major brands while maintaining a studio in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Roberts sold pieces from his studio, via his gallery, and through New York collector Gabriel Schumann. In 2013, Oliver “Power” Grant of Wu-Tang Clan invited Roberts to collaborate on a show for Wallplay Gallery. That same year, Roberts installed at the Complex Magazine office. Coincidentally, Roberts shares a birthday with the 1980 release date of the Air Max. His ongoing commissions with Nike have included sculptures at NikeLab storefront in Soho, the Manhattan flagship store, and the Kobe IV shoe release at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. In 2016, Roberts was selected as a Nike Master of Air. His work has been featured in art journals, and on lifestyle and culture brands .

Christophe Roberts currently exhibits works in sculpture and design, in addition to paintings. Roberts lives in Brooklyn. [2]

Exhibitions

2016

Nike Airmax Con, New York, NY [3]

2014

Initiative Gallery, New York, NY [4]

2013

2010

[6]

2009

2008

2006

2005

2004

2002

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Nessim</span> American artist, illustrator and educator

Barbara Nessim is an American artist, illustrator, and educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Currin</span> American painter

John Currin is an American painter based in New York City. He is most recognised for his technically proficient satirical figurative paintings that explore controversial sexual and societal topics. His work shows a wide range of influences, including sources as diverse as the Renaissance, popular culture magazines, and contemporary fashion models. He often distorts or exaggerates the erotic forms of the female body, and has stressed that his characters are reflections of himself rather than inspired by real people.

Jessica Jackson Hutchins is an American artist from Chicago, Illinois who is based in Portland, Oregon. Her practice consists of large scale ceramics, multi-media installations, assemblage, and paintings all of which utilize found objects such as old furniture, ceramics, worn out clothes, and newspaper clippings. She is most recognizable for her sloppy craft assemblages of furniture and ceramics. Her work was selected for the 2010: Whitney Biennial, featured in major art collections, and has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally, in Iceland, the UK, and Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nathan Oliveira</span> American painter (1928 - 2010)

Nathan Oliveira was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor, born in Oakland, California to immigrant Portuguese parents. Since the late 1950s, Oliveira has been the subject of nearly one hundred solo exhibitions, in addition to having been included in hundreds of group exhibitions in important museums and galleries worldwide. He taught studio art for several decades in California, beginning in the early 1950s, when he taught at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. After serving as a Visiting Artist at several universities, he became a Professor of Studio Art at Stanford University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kenneth Price</span> American artist (1935–2021)

Kenneth Price was an American artist who predominantly created ceramic sculpture. He studied at the Chouinard Art Institute and Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, before receiving his BFA degree from the University of Southern California in 1956. He continued his studies at Chouinard Art Institute in 1957 and received an MFA degree from New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University in 1959. Kenneth Price studied ceramics with Peter Voulkos at Otis and was awarded a Tamarind Fellowship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Shelton (sculptor)</span> American sculptor

Peter Shelton is a contemporary American sculptor born in 1951 in Troy, Ohio.

Idelle Lois Weber was an American artist most closely aligned with the Pop art and Photorealist movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Irving Kriesberg</span> American painter, sculptor, educator, author, and filmmaker

Irving Kriesberg was an American painter, sculptor, educator, author, and filmmaker, whose work combined elements of Abstract Expressionism with representational human, animal, and humanoid forms. Because Kriesberg blended formalist elements with figurative forms he is often considered to be a Figurative Expressionist.

Cordy Ryman, an artist based in New York City. Ryman earned his BFA with Honors in Fine Arts and Art Education from The School of Visual Arts in New York in 1997. He is the son of artist Robert Ryman (1930-2019). Cordy Ryman is represented by Freight and Volume Gallery, New York, NY.

Charles Seliger was an American abstract expressionist painter. He was born in Manhattan June 3, 1926, and he died on 1 October 2009, in Westchester County, New York. Seliger was one of the original generation of abstract expressionist painters connected with the New York School.

Roland Conrad Petersen is a Danish-born American painter, printmaker, and professor. His career spans over 50 years, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area and is perhaps best-known for his "Picnic series" beginning in 1959 to today. He is part of the Bay Area Figurative Movement.

George Earl Ortman was an American painter, printmaker, constructionist and sculptor. His work has been referred to as Neo-Dada, pop art, minimalism and hard-edge painting. His constructions, built with a variety of materials and objects, deal with the exploration off visual language derived from geometry—geometry as symbol and sign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ezio Martinelli</span> American painter

Ezio Martinelli was an American artist who belonged to the New York School Abstract Expressionist artists, a leading art movement of the post-World War II era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polly Apfelbaum</span> American contemporary visual artist (born 1955)

Polly E. Apfelbaum is an American contemporary visual artist, who is primarily known for her colorful drawings, sculptures, and fabric floor pieces, which she refers to as "fallen paintings". She currently lives and works in New York City, New York.

Laylah Ali (born 1968) is a contemporary visual artist known for paintings in which ambiguous race relations are depicted with a graphic clarity and cartoon strip format.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sopheap Pich</span> American sculptor

Sopheap Pich is a Cambodian American contemporary artist. His sculptures utilize traditional Cambodian materials, which reflect the history of the nation and the artist's relation to his identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Kovachevich</span> American artist (born 1942)

Thomas Kovachevich is an American contemporary visual artist and physician. Kovachevich's art practice is multi-faceted; exhibitions of paintings, sculptures, installations and performances have represented the lexicon of this artist.

Margaret Wharton (1943-2014) was an American artist, known for her sculptures of deconstructed chairs. She deconstructed, reconstructed and reimagined everyday objects to make works of art that could be whimsical, witty or simply thought-provoking in reflecting her vision of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Kunz</span> American artist (1937–2001)

Don Kunz, is known for his work as a calligrapher, painter and teacher. Kunz served the Cooper Union for 33 years. He was devoted to the education of artists, most notably in the areas of painting and calligraphy; he is remembered for creating a dialogue between the two disciplines. His work was described as canvases filled with rich color and texture. Robert Rindler, former Dean of The School of Art at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art describes Kunz's work as "a cacophony of color calligraphic gestures. It is the orchestra warming up in discord and evolving before your eyes into the most complex orchestral magic. They are eternally moving while frozen in time and place. All of Kunz's paintings require our participation in a dialogue."

Clotilde Jiménez is a multi-disciplinary American artist who works with ceramics, collage, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. His work's common themes, include blackness, gender, masculinity, and sexuality. Jiménez lives and works in Mexico City.

References

  1. "Christophe Roberts : Art at Viacom". Artatviacom.tumnlr. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. 1 2 [ permanent dead link ]
  3. "Nike's Air Max Con Just Landed in New York City". Archived from the original on 2016-08-14. Retrieved 2016-12-19.
  4. "People - Photos". Zimbio.
  5. "Complex | Music, Sneakers, Style, Pop Culture, News & ShowsZwebsite=Greenlabel".
  6. "In His Shoes: Christophe Roberts – in Her Shoes". Inhershoesblog.
  7. "Christophe Roberts' Nike Shoe Box Sculptures | Bad at Sports". Badatsports. Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  8. "Who's Got Next? The Work of Christophe Roberts – Gozamos". Archived from the original on 2020-08-15. Retrieved 2016-12-19.