Work in the Collection includes a large piece by ROBERT STANDISH.
"Untitled (Reflection)"
His new Bathing series is comprised of figurative oil on canvas paintings and photographs.
Photo-realistic and beautifully rendered, the paintings show vivid detail of meditative bathers, models Standish has photographed over the past three years. This new series developed from his earlier series, in which he photographed and painted individuals he came into contact with on the streets of Los Angeles. The subjects were comprised of street people, prostitutes and other acquaintances, reflecting moods of despondency and isolation.
Searching for a metaphorical cleansing, Standish decided to incorporate the ritual of bathing in his new series. He used some of the same models as before along with new ones, and placed them in various bathing scenes, capturing distinctive undercurrents of reflection and introspection. He explores notions of idealized femininity and the psychology of beauty.
Robert Standish has a background in psychology and is a self-taught painter and photographer.
He has developed his contemporary style of Photo-Realism during the last several years while working on this series.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT - NEW SERIES
Skin, flesh, fragile tissue... the shell of human form. Inside inhabits a soul and personality. Outside of the shell, exist many absurd influences from societies' masses, which we in our individual skins consciously and subconsciously respond to.
My work mirrors individuals’ private moments of introspection. I find myself compelled to capture the moments when a strong desire and need to feel comfortable in one's own skin are present. Similarly, I want to capture a person’s attempt at reconnecting or discovering some form of greater magic (conventionally speaking, God) and the candid instant when a person reveals how far he or she feels from that magic.
In my most recent series, I explore the pervasive influence of commercialism on individual psychology. To elicit a reaction beyond the status quo, I chose to implement advertising trends that will potentially appear in the near future. This work which features various corporate logos, was not intentionally created for a company's commercial purposes, but instead to permit mutual exploitation by allowing the display of the company’s logo on my paintings. The aim of the series is to prompt reflection and introspection by the viewer of the psychological violations and absurdness of most advertising.