- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
- - -
Chris Robb sees painting, like surfing, as an improvisatory relationship between two surfaces. Whether between the board and the wave or the brush and the canvas, Chris Robb's work translates the experience of surfing into lyrical and synthetic compositions.
In Robb's work, surfing is reduced to a system constructed from recognizable and iconic forms — the surfer, the wave and the board. His work seeks to articulate an experience of improvisation through a free-form arrangement and interplay of painterly gestures. Through repetition, these gestures form a unique vocabulary of 'surf icons.' Robb's vibrant colors and banal color harmonies take cues from the neo-expressionists, while his figurative depiction is inspired by the traditional, indigenous coastal arts of Africa, Oceania, and North America.
Underlying many of Robb's works is a deep concern for the earth's natural resources and an attempt to understand man's role in a complex ecology. Chris Robb lives and works in Windermere and New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Robb's works are part of numerous private collections. He has been profiled and had work published in Longboard Magazine, Line Up Magazine, ESM and One Magazine.