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Rob Delamater (b. 1966)
- My new show, Travelogue, will open at Lost Art Salon on Thursday, February 27th alongside a show from Salon co-founder, Gaétan Caron. We will be giving an artist talk at 6pm that evening with a reception to follow.
My work is created using various forms of printmaking (hand-painted monoprints in water-based paints on archival paper), painting and collage. I think my most successful pieces combine simplicity and the Japanese concept of "wabi sabi" (finding beauty in imperfection).
Each new piece begins with either a sketch or an idea about colors. And it always comes from a direct experience with the real world. My stone-inspired pieces began with a drawing I made of an arrangement of fallen rocks I encountered high up in the Andes of Peru - an act of nature had created a perfect composition. And that fascination has continued with my exploration of the Northern California coast.
I am enamored with ideas, objects, stories, and people from the past. I've been very impacted by the Bloomsbury Group - a small circle of artists and writers in London from the early part of the 20th century. They believed in making as much as they could themselves (textiles, furniture, ceramics, fine art, etc.) and valued the gifts of friendship - especially between men and women - which was rare in those days.
In the fall of 2019 I was an artist in residence at Fundación Valparaíso in Southern Spain. In the spring of 2018 I did a residency at La Macina di San Cresci in Tuscany, Italy. And in 2017 I was privileged to spend two weeks making work in France at Chateau Orquevaux. Away from my typical routines, studio and supplies, each experience has encouraged me to return to the basics of color, form and composition. As a result, I have been reminded that one needs very little to create.
I was raised in Southern California where both the coast and the desert imprinted their beauty on me at an early age. After twenty five years in San Francisco, I now live across the bay in the Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland. My painting and printmaking studio is located on the same property in the shed you see pictured above. The dramatic clash of nature (water, hills, constantly changing weather) with urban forms (architecture, the angles of the streets) of the Bay Area has a significant influence on my work.
*My work can be seen in the Netflix series "Sense8", "Grace and Frankie", “Mozart in The Jungle", "Thirteen Reasons Why", "Chance", and “The Block” (Australia). My clients include Ethan Allen, Banana Republic, Restoration Hardware, Schoolhouse Electric & Supply, Serena and Lily and Pottery Barn. Collectors include Charlize Theron, Nate Berkus, Tom Ford, and Ken Fulk. - My new show, Travelogue, is a visual journal of the places and ideas I explored in my travels last year. The itinerary included an artist residency in Southern Spain and the meandering waters of California’s Yuba River. The exhibition also chronicles my love of art history, including the Bauhaus Movement and Etruscan Art.
Pieces created during these explorations were primarily painted in gouache – an intensely pigmented watercolor that makes it easy to paint on the go. I introduced printmaking techniques upon my return back in my studio to strike a balance between mediums.
The delight of the unfamiliar has always propelled my imagination and the work in this show is the result of staying open to the new.
My new show, Travelogue, will open at Lost Art Salon on Thursday, February 27th alongside a show from Salon co-founder, Gaétan Caron. We will be giving an artist talk at 6pm that evening with a reception to follow. A partial view of the collection is online now.
My most recent work can be viewed on my personal site:
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