Rob Samartino

ral work is made in the space and time between my palette and whatever canvas I am working on. The gradual, accumulative approach to painting and sculpting maintains my interest in the brief moments in a day I have available to work. It also allows for an open ended motive to evolve and absorb different content from an expanding collection of source material. Written below are individual descriptions for a few of my most recent paintings. Subterraneans 32” x 26” oil and wax on canvas 2016

This painting combines the imagery of my childhood with my present day experiences at work as a driver and art handler. The time spanned here connects my introduction as an obedient elementary school student with the conditioning as a member of a labor force responsive to authority. On an island in the center of Collect Pond 26” x 32” oil and wax on canvas 2016

This painting alludes to a rural origin of an urban environment. Collect Pond was a body of water in lower Manhattan that existed until 1808, when it was finally drained by a canal which would become Canal St. Its location occupied the present day streets of Franklin, Worth, Lafayette and Baxter. Within the Collect was an island where executions would be held, and eventually where one of New York’s earliest prisons colloquially known as ‘the Tombs’ would be built. I have an eye for spotting snapping turtles and for finding cash on the floor. When I was only a few years old I discovered my first turtle only to scare it away before I could share it with anyone else. I have been obsessed ever since. I dream about them; I dream about finding turtles and I dream about finding money- usually small bills folded twice unevenly and spread conspicuously close to each other. Know Nothings ( portrait of George Washington ) 52” x 38” oil and wax on canvas 2016

This hydra originally was intended to be a stripped down portrait of George Washington. Washington has been repeatedly depicted through generations ​as an evolving paternal archetype. I thought that if I presented this icon without his wig, his clothes or any sign of status I would humanize him. This inevitably resulted in frustration and failure until I realized ​​what I was unintentional​y doing​ and redefined​ my purpose.​​ The painting reverse engineers the portraits of Washington by Gilbert Stuart using contemporary sources to imagine a confrontational position of the face. While the contemporary sources do not necessarily resemble Washington​,​ some of their isolated features ​do. Included in the periphery of the painting are the infamous financier Bernie Madoff, the economist Richard Wolff, Bernie Sanders, Jasper Johns, as well as the actors Ralph Fiennes and John Malkovich. Gaze 26” x 32” oil and wax on canvas 2016

The several portraits included in Gaze derive from the distinct shape of a man’1s brow line. A symmetrical slope curving upwards at either end can also be seen in the Texas long horn, as well as the face of an owl which I repeated in this painting to demonstrate this pattern. I included portraits of Curtis Lemay, Jimmy Stewart, Ralph Nader, Fred Rogers ( Mr. Rogers ) through improvisation.