Robbie Sugg, “Past Present”
Crescendo Gallery
Artist Statement
My artistic process is a response to my present location. Starting with the artifacts and surfaces of the place in which I reside, I construct images that visualize the accretive effect of a place being lived in. I am most drawn to the intersection of painting and print media, two antiquated mediums that, despite their supposed obsolescence, continue to be utilized indefinitely.
My vocabulary manifests as a mélange of forms: incidental marks, surfaces, street grids, landscapes, architectures, photography, signage, and detritus. Elements are built up, covered, scraped down, shifted, and reworked according to their own changing logic and circumstances. Upon first view, incidental scuffs, cracks, and markings in the urban surface could be found practically anywhere, yet they serve as a fingerprint of a particular place in time. I am interested in how ordinary minutiae mark the passage of time and people, and how they speak to what is forgotten or left behind in our social consciousness. The detritus manifested by a place is a microcosm of that place; they are symbols of their own becoming, and of their own deterioration. The images straddle the boundary between the abstract and the recognizable, the intentional and the unintentional, what is preserved and what is lost.
Featured artwork: Title: Tierra Adentro (triptych detail)
Medium: Screen print and bleach on paper
Dimensions: 17-13/16″ H x 14-1/16″ W (one panel of three)
2017
