Michelle Roberts: Red, Blue, Up

22 Feb-1 Jun 2025

Overview

De La Warr Pavilion is pleased to present Red, Blue, Up, a major new exhibition of paintings and drawings by Bexhill-based artist, Michelle Roberts, in the First floor gallery this spring. This solo exhibition is programmed in collaboration with award-winning arts charity Outside In, following the artist winning first prize in its national open exhibition, Humanity, in 2023, and Project Art Works, a neurodiverse collective
of artists and activists based in Hastings, of which Roberts is a member. Red, Blue, Up follows Roberts’ participation in DLWP’s 2015 group exhibition, In the Realm of Others.

Roberts has drawn and painted throughout her life. As a young girl, she accompanied her grandfather, a watercolour painter who often worked outdoors, and has since maintained a drive to make art. The approach to painting and drawing that she has refined over the years is ambitious in terms of scale, conception and realisation. Her subjects arise from the realm of lived experience, such as a holiday, a visit to the ‘Dinosaur World’ exhibition, or the thrill of an Air Show, whilst other works celebrate events such as the Diamond Jubilee, Remembrance Day, or films that she has seen. Roberts has developed a personal and meticulous approach to making. Photographs serve as a reference, offering
hints and prompts of past experiences, from which she works methodically across each work, section by section, to create compositions that come to life through vivid colour. Through this detailed yet joyful execution, her works are underpinned by her unwavering precision and control, as she dissects shapes, forms and patterns across canvas and paper.

Red, Blue, Up will include a broad selection of works from the last 15 years of Roberts’ career, including several new paintings. Presented alongside these works will be several of the artist’s concertina sketch books, which demonstrate her distinct visual logic within the contained scale of each page. For this presentation, Roberts has conceived a modular seating installation for the gallery, designed through the lens of the striking colours, perspectives, surfaces and textures that she builds into each work.

Playful, joyous, and intriguing, Roberts’ work asks us to slow down and take time to look and feel in the present moment. Through this exhibition, she invites us to explore each of her vibrant universes, drawing our attention to the different ways that we remember.