A solo exhibition by Thames-Side Studios-based Robert Hawkins, Things You Can't Ever See presents speculative narrative works manifesting the unseeable, from primordial scenes to paranormal depictions. Large watercolours, smaller oil paintings, constructions and a new film installation, I Faked the Ghosts of the Royal Iris.
Born in 1951 in Sunnyvale, California, Robert had no formal art education but his imaginative visualisation skills carried him through New York City's heady Lower East Side art scene of the late 1970s, '80s and '90s until he decided to relocate to London following the September 11 attacks of 2001. His style has been referred to as 'pseudo-realism', imitating technique and academic precision such as proportion and anatomy within a generally surreal visual narrative.
Work by Hawkins are held in the collections of Courtney Love, Jim Jarmusch, Abel Ferrara, Tony Shafrazi, George and Anna Condo, Jacquelyn Schnabel, David Bowie Estate, Andy Warhol Estate, Jean-Michel Basquiat Estate, Keith Haring Estate, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
