Robert Flynn, Paintings and Drawings at Bridge Red Studios/Project Space

Opening reception: September 9, 2012. 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
From September 9 through November 11, 2012.

Robert Flynn, Paintings and Drawings is the first retrospective for the artist Robert Flynn. Flynn lived and worked in Miami for many years before moving to Vermont in 2007 where he tragically and unexpectedly died from a heart attack at the age of 39. A prolific artist who worked in series’, Bridge Red will be showing works from each dating back from 1994 to his final series in 2007.

Some of the highlights of the show include the earliest series in the exhibit Cows, in which over 100 different breeds are represented, each one, rawly painted on an 11 x 11 inch square canvas. Another highlight and perhaps the series Flynn was most known for, Peeps, are large-scale, delicately articulated paintings of birds swirling on a frontal plane against monochromatic backdrops. His final series represented in the exhibit is The Great Lawn, where Flynn derives his subject from his yard. This series includes paintings, drawings and sculpture.

Flynn described his process this way, “My experience is my production. As a recent homeowner and dedicated do-it-yourselfer, I have been teaching myself yard work. Watering, mowing and weeding and countless other chores devoted to the garden have become my plight, or rather inspiration for subject matter. Vast stretches of dirt have been made green again. Very little of this has to do with nature. Friends and neighbors alike vie for the trophy lawn, participating in a turf war over curb appeal. Nature has become objectified; the backyard a modern day fetish. The Great Lawn seeks to celebrate the yard, at the same time stripping it down to its essential units. Each sod plug is a portrait, commemorating the hundreds of plugs that for one reason or another withered away.”

This exhibit offers a glimpse of the methodology of the artist as he explored each subject. Their relation is this methodology, as Flynn would suss out meaning through investigation and presentation, until he exhausted the source, and then move on to the next subject. In speaking to Robert’s widow Stephanie Sorrick-Flynn, she said, “that when he was a boy in Manhasset NY he made a plan to ride his bike down every street in his town and he did. He didn’t make a big deal about it but he did. And to me that pretty much encompasses his approach to all of his work.”

The exhibition concludes with a closing brunch from noon to 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 11th. The exhibition can be viewed by appointment, by calling 305.978.4856.

Bridge Red Studios/Project Space
12425 NE 13th Avenue # 5
North Miami, FL 33161
305.978.4856
www.bridgeredstudios.com

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