Still-life painting of three hummingbirds hanging on pins and one dead insect above, with the caption 'All My Hummingbirds Have Alibis' (ref. Max Ernst) at the bottom.

Robert Anthony

I paint to challenge the authority of images. Working between figuration and abstraction, my practice treats the artwork as an active site of disruption, where representation is unstable and meaning is continuously contested. My work is shaped by historical displacement, collective memory, and the tension between visibility and erasure.

I begin with art-historical references, not to preserve them but to break them apart. My approach can differ depending on the image and the medium but always focuses on transmutation. The image can be degraded through aggressive layering, scraping, and overpainting. Other times it might be excerpted and reconfigured, fractured or reworked to confront its construction and its meaning.

My work confronts memory and the evolution of cultural meaning, often within a more subtle political context. By pulling from art-historical references and deliberately distorting them, I create friction between familiarity and rupture. I treat art history as a living evolution that resists passive viewing and demands sustained engagement.