Robert Montgomery (artist)
| Robert Montgomery | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born |
Robert Montgomery 1972 Chapelhall, North Lanarkshire, Scotland |
| Nationality | Scottish |
| Education | Edinburgh College of Art |
| Known for | Poetry, Installation art |
Robert Montgomery (born 1972) is a Scottish-born, London based sculptor and poet, known for his site-specific installations created from light and text. Montgomery works in a "melancholic post-Situationist" tradition, primarily in public spaces.
Early career and education
Montgomery received his MFA and his BA from Edinburgh College of Art,[1] and has been the Artist-in-Residence at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston Texas.[2] In his early career, Montgomery experimented with creating minimalist sculptures with elaborate poetic titles. Eventually, Montgomery dropped the sculptures all together and began to focus on the combination of verbal and visual presentation.[3] In his initial works, Montgomery wrote poems on the sides of buses and on walls with spray paint, wanting to follow closely in the footsteps of graffiti artists who made the city a "free space of diverse voices." [4]
Work
Often installed illegally amid industrial and urban sites, Montgomery's installations address universal themes such as power, love, and human kindness with sparse language and dramatic visuals.[1] These text-based conceptual pieces categorized as recycled sunlight pieces, billboard pieces, fire poems, woodcut panels, and watercolors.[5] Montgomery's cryptic and emotionally resonant poetry comments on contemporary life and affirms his personal and philosophical beliefs, which he describes as "melancholic post-Situationist", a 20th-century antiauthoritarian Marxist movement. [1]
Process and inspiration
Montgomery was initially inspired by the graffiti artists of East London, the poetry of Philip Larkin, the philosophy of Guy Debord, and the French student protestors of May 1968. Montgomery became interested in the Situationist tradition while following the writing of Roland Barthes and Jean Baudrillard during his time at Edinburgh College of Art.[4] Montgomery also cites lyricists as important influencers, as his poems often mirror the tone and structure commonly used by song writers.[6] He often writes with a certain melancholy, stating that he is fascinated by the sentiment as the creation of beauty from sadness. Montgomery describes his process as being random and unpredictable: "You quite often get stuff at like 2 o'clock in the morning and kind of see what you've got. I quite like that process".[6] In selecting a platform for his art, Montgomery was inspired by Jenny Holzer and Felix Gonzalez-Torres' use of billboard space.
Books and recognition
Robert Montgomery's Echos of Voices in the High Towers was published by Mono Kultur in 2012. The Book is A2 in size, folding out to A1 in size, divided into three parts, and serves as a complete publication of Montgomery's work.
Exhibitions
Montgomery's work has been featured in a variety of galleries, publications, and public locations. His work is in the permanent collection at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston Texas [2] and the Anna Jill Lupertz Gallery in Berlin.
| Solo Exhibitions | |
| 2014 | Robert Montgomery, Anna Jill Lupertz Gallery, Berlin, Germany |
| The Office Gallery, Nicosia, Cyrpus | |
| Piles of Dirt and Glass You Walk Upon, Galerie Colette, Paris, France | |
| 2013 | Robert Montgomery, C24 Gallery, New York, NY, USA |
| City is Wilder, Installation at Kater Holzig, Anna Jil Lüpertz Gallery, Berlin, Germany | |
| Echoes of Voices in the High Towers, Galerie Nuke, Paris, France | |
| 2012 | Robert Montgomery: Echoes of Voices in the High Towers Part 2, Neue Berliner Räume, Stattbad Wedding, and billboard sites, Berlin Germany |
| Robert Montgomery: Echoes of Voices in the High Towers Part 2, Neue Berliner Räume, site of old Tempelhof Airport and billboard sites, Berlin, Germany | |
| Whenever An Angel, Galerie Analix-Forever, Geneva, Switzerland | |
| It Turned Out This Way Cos You Dreamed It This Way, KK Outlet and billboard sites London, United Kingdom | |
| 2011 | Fire of Each Other, Galerie Nuke, Paris, France |
| 2009 | Emotional Emergency, Analix Forever Gallery, Geneva, Switzerland |
| 2008 | Derniers Jours: May 68/May 8, Galerie Nuke, Paris, France |
Personal life
Montgomery currently works and lives in London, United Kingdom.[2] Montgomery prefers to spend his time in cities, transferring between London, Paris, New York, and Berlin.[6]
See also
References
- 1 2 3 "Robert Montgomery | Artspace". Artspace. Retrieved 2015-09-25.
- 1 2 3 4 "Robert Montgomery - C24 Gallery". www.c24gallery.com. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
- ↑ "Robert Montgomery - 44 Artworks, Bio & Shows on Artsy". www.artsy.net. Retrieved 2015-09-25.
- 1 2 "Word on the Street: Robert Montgomery". Interview Magazine. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
- ↑ "Robert Montgomery Works In a Poetic And Melancholic Post-Situationist Tradition". www.robertmontgomery.org. Retrieved 2015-10-20.
- 1 2 3 "Robert Montgomery | The Talks". the-talks.com. Retrieved 2015-10-20.