Robert Fry – Disintegration
Disintegration brings together an amalgamation of different parts of British artist Robert Fry's practice: painting, etching and collage – the new works come together in a hybrid of applied oil paint, ink, collage and etchings on prints, as a new synergy is formed, the ambiguity of the definition of the work between multiple and unique, plays on the viewers mind. Continuing his investigation into the individual and the other, the mind and the body. Robert Fry strives to question the same in people, what makes them unique and what are the ways in which they reflect, represent and imitate each other, or perhaps, exist only as so called non-distinguishable multiples of one-another.
We are pleased to announce the solo exhibition Disintegration at Galerie Kornfeld of British artist Robert Fry.
Bringing together an amalgamation of different parts of his practice—painting, etching, and collage—the new works form a hybrid of applied oil paint, ink, collage, and etchings on prints. As a new synergy is created, the ambiguity of the work’s definition—between multiple and unique—plays on the viewer’s mind.
Continuing his investigation into the individual and the other, the mind and the body, Robert Fry questions what makes people unique and the ways in which they reflect, represent, and imitate one another—or perhaps exist only as so-called non-distinguishable multiples of one another.
In an ongoing struggle of construction and deconstruction, Fry explores a delicate psychological space in which the human form is ever present and the concepts of manhood and the self play a key role. By reworking the pieces repeatedly, Fry expresses a painterly and human process of endless revision. What we see may not be what it appears to be, just as a person may not be whom we first assume them to be on a surface level.
Instead, we must scratch at appearances, break apart limbs, and mark the body with demarcations in order to reach a deeper level of being. Repeated words, fragments of sentences, scribbles, and the symbol of infinity run through the works, revealing an unhinged state of mind. The interdisciplinary approach heightens the need to understand—to search beneath the layers and reach the so-called heart of things.
Through a process of reduction, Fry challenges our notion of figuration and understanding. How far can abstraction be taken? Symmetry, which plays a key role in his oeuvre, expands into new dimensions. His figures no longer sit within a defined space but instead reach from one corner of the grid to the next—in fragments or explosive energy.
As the figure is expanded, broken apart, and deformed, the work begins to speak not only of different personalities within one man, but also of the magnitude and complexity of the human mind.
Robert Fry (born 1980 in London) studied in Oxford and was shortlisted for the prestigious John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize. In 2016, his works were shown alongside artists such as Marina Abramović, Louise Bourgeois, Paul Cézanne, Tracey Emin, and Egon Schiele in the exhibition The Nude in the XX & XXI Century at S|2 in London. In 2015, he was listed in Thames & Hudson’s 100 Painters of Tomorrow.
His works have been shown at the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, in Los Angeles, and in numerous exhibitions throughout Europe. He is represented in prominent public and private collections worldwide, including the Saatchi Collection, the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, and the collection of Mario Testino.
Recent exhibitions include Untitled Miami Beach (2019), Art021 Shanghai (2019), Robert Fry – Lost Men at Beers, London (2019), Robert Fry and Casey McKee: Unpacking Ego at Space K, South Korea (2018), and Robert Fry and Tina Schwarz at Galerie Kornfeld, Berlin (2017).