“I didn’t grow up with abstract or conceptual art or anything like that. So, like for me, the root is really about storytelling.”
American artist Charlie Roberts is known for his intimate figurative paintings, which depict the complexities and nuances of modern life in bright colors and intricate detail.
To Roberts, painting is, first and foremost, narrative. Growing up in a small town in Kansas, Roberts recalls a mural in the local post office depicting workers in the fields. “It was probably a fresco or egg tempera, and it was just beautifully done. And it’s a picture telling a story.”
In this interview, Roberts explains how the rich, narrative-filled works of Pieter Bruegel and Thomas Hart Benton, as well as how rap music has influenced his art. Discussing the evolution of figurative painting, Roberts notes its recent shift from nostalgia to contemporary relevance. He draws inspiration from the specificity and anti-nostalgic nature of rap music:
“Rap music is specific and it’s obsessed with dating itself and it’s obsessed with referencing. It’s like anti-nostalgic. And I think that is so potent for me.”
Roberts’ works often celebrate and critique modern life, reflecting personal insecurities and the complex interplay of consumer culture. This includes a fascination with finance and modern societal structures, incorporating these themes into his art with a critical yet appreciative lens.
“Mostly my paintings are sort of celebrations and things I’m interested in, but they’re also a lot about sort of, I mean, there’s a lot of personal class insecurity cooked into the paintings and, and the sort of reflection on the consumer culture that’s so attractive and horrific at the same time.”
Charlie Roberts was born and raised in Kansas, United States. He graduated from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design, Vancouver, Canada, in 2005. He is known for collecting and sampling elements from contemporary pop culture and hip-hop to art history in his praxis, which spans wood carving, ceramics, painting on canvas, and watercolor on paper. Roberts currently lives and works in Oslo, Norway.
Christian Lund interviewed Charlie Roberts in Roberts’ studio in Oslo, Norway, in 2022.
Camera: Rasmus Quistgaard
Edited by: Nanna Rebekka
Produced by: Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2023
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling, and Fritz Hansen.
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